According to security companies and private sector commentary, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of attempted attacks against US government systems and their corresponding networks.

In fact, the number of attempts against these systems has increased by a whopping 40 percent in a report filed by the Office of Management Budget.

Last year, over 41,000 attacks took place, while the year before, they number about 30 thousand. US-CERT breaks it down like this:

* Malicious code – 12,864 (31%)
* “other – 11,336 (27%) (May be still under investigation)
* Denial of service, unauthorized and/or attempted access, improper usage and scans probes, etc. – 17,576 (42%).

“DHS anticipates that malicious cyber activity will continue to become more common, more sophisticated and more targeted — and range from unsophisticated hackers to very technically competent intruders using state-of-the-art techniques,” said DHS spokesman Chris Ortman.

Review the report and article by Helpnet Security to get the full scoop on the government cyber attacks.