Hacker Attacks Rose 40% Last Year

Symantec Corporation SYMC announced on Wednesday that hacker attacks on large companies increased 40 percent in 2014 from the prior year, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News.

The time required to repair vulnerabilities also increased dramatically. Vendors needed an average of 59 days to make repairs in 2014 compared to four days in 2013.

"Hackers are a lot faster, more creative and are using more resources and making it harder for companies to defend themselves," according to Satnam Narang of Symantec.

Narang added that 17 percent of apps on Android stores in 2014 were actually malware which had the appearance of legitimate games and apps.

With the surge in hacking attacks, investors may want to keep an eye on cybersecurity stocks, including FireEye Inc FEYE, Cyberark Software Ltd CYBR and Palo Alto Networks Inc PANW.

Reflecting broader cybersecurity market exposure, the PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF HACK has risen over 20 percent since November of 2014.