The Kingdom is less vulnerable to Internet security threats than some other countries, having improved its global ranking from 12 in 2012 to 36 in 2013, according to a recently released report.

The Symantec 2014 Internet security threat report showed that the Kingdom was also less of a target for spam messages, having moved from second place on the global ranking to 26 in 2013.

The ratings for malicious codes and software in 2013 remained similar to the previous year, while there was considerable progress in other categories.

According to the report, the Kingdom retreated from a ranking of 72 in 2012, to 90 in 2013 as a source of fraudulent threats. And as a source of threats from viruses, the Kingdom moved from 67 in 2012 to 70 in 2013.

Small businesses in the Kingdom, classified as having between one and 250 employees, have experienced a 66 percent increase in fraud and other targeted attacks, while large companies with more than 2,500 employees experienced about a 33 percent rise.

Fraud and targeted cyberattacks on the wholesale sector increased 66 percent, while there was a 33 percent increase in attacks on the financial, insurance and real estate sectors.

Globally, the report showed there was a 91 percent increase in attacks in 2013, with each attack lasting three times longer than in 2012.

It also found that the mining industry, which includes oil, gas and manufacturing, were most at risk of being attacked, while the most targeted attacks last year were against governments and the service industry.

The cyber security provider describes 2013 as the year of the "Mega Data Breach," with the total number of data breaches up 62 percent to 253.

“However, even a 62 percent increase does not truly reflect the scale of the breaches last year; 2013 was the year of the mega breach, with eight of the data breaches exposing more than 10 million identities,” the report said.

Spear phishing attacks, in which the cyber criminal uses email spoofing for financial gain or trade secrets, were found to more evenly target large and small businesses, with large corporations hit by 39 percent of attacks compared to 50 percent in 2012, the report said.

Samer Sidani, regional director of Symantec in the Kingdom, said the losses caused by one of the big breaches are equivalent to the value of 50 small attacks. He said attackers are now being more patient, and are more likely to wait for a target with a bigger yield.