Why cybercriminals love a good Valentine’s Day

3. Money can't buy you love

Money can't buy you love, but it may get you a masked redirect. Our research shows that 70 per cent of the world's most popular websites have either hosted malicious content or contained a masked redirect to lure unsuspecting victims from legitimate sites to malicious sites.

In fact, we have seen specially-created malicious sites decline as cyber criminals switch to compromising trusted websites. They are cashing in, literally, on our increased confidence in shopping and researching online - a lot of which happens whilst in the office. As people turn to the internet to order flowers, chocolates and other gifts - so too are the cybercriminals turning to these sites to compromise them and steal data.

The underground economy is positively flourishing as companies fail to keep up with security technology. Criminals are taking advantage of the growing number of Web 2.0 properties which allow user-generated content. More than ever we're seeing websites injected with links to direct users to malicious and compromised sites. And since many email security systems lack web intelligence, spammers have also stepped up email campaigns which contain links to malicious web pages. It's clear that businesses need security with real-time protection, but until this becomes the norm - cybercriminals will continue stealing data and breaking hearts.