Guide to cyber security threats

Cyber security has become a dominant feature of the global political agenda as a lack of awareness combined with increased internet connectivity make cyber attacks a bigger worry than ever before. This interactive graphic is a visual guide to 16 of the top cyber threats – from ‘botnet’ zombie computers to abuse of lost information – and indicates whether they are increasing, decreasing or stable.

This overview is based on a report by ENISA, the European network and information security agency. It highlights the wide range of sources of risk, from corporations and governments to cyber criminals and ‘hacktivists’.

The six main areas of vulnerability are: mobile computing; social technology; critical infrastructure like healthcare; trust infrastructure, such as electronic identity systems; cloud computing, which gives users shared access to data; and finally big data, which refers to large volumes of data stored in the same place.