Enterprises in India faced more than 2.6 crore cyber threats during the third quarter of 2018 -- translating to over 2.8 lakhs threats every day, according to a new report from Seqrite, the enterprise arm of global IT security firm Quick Heal Technologies.

Information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITES) companies faced the most number of threats, with over 40 percent of the threats targeting the industry, according to the "Seqrite Quarterly Threat Report Q3 2018" on Wednesday.

Other key sectors such as manufacturing (17.88 percent), education (12.56 percent), and hospitality (9.17 percent) were also deemed to be at risk.

"There is no denying that enterprises face an unparalleled security challenge today. Growing interconnectivity has demolished traditional security perimetres," Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer, Quick Heal Technologies Limited said in a statement.

"Every endpoint, every node, every device connected to enterprise networks has become a point of entry for attackers looking to steal invaluable information and disrupt business operations," Katkar added.

While ransomware, exploits, potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) and adware, infectors, and worms remained popular attack vectors for cybercriminals, the report noted a growing threat posed by cryptojacking.

Seqrite detected over 24,000 cryptojacking hits on a daily basis during Q3 2018.

Cryptojacking attacks -- a form of cyber-attack in which hackers hijack the infected system's processing power to mine cryptocurrency -- remain undetected for a long time and can often be used as a platform to launch other complex attacks.

First Published:Dec 26, 2018 4:48 PM IST