OMB: Federal Cyber Attacks up in 2010

While the total number of cyber security incidents was down overall, a report by the Office of Management and Budget found that there was an increase in cyber attacks on the federal government in 2010.

According to InformationWeek, of the total 107,439 incidents reported to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), 41,776 were of malicious intent, a 39 percent increase over the previous year.

Phishing was the top threat, although it was down to 52.7 percent of the total number of incidents, compared to 64.5 percent in 2009. Attacks by Trojans, viruses, worms, and logic bombs were up slightly, rising from 8.1 percent of the total number of incidents in 2009 to 10.2 percent in 2010.