New Internet Security Threat Research Reveals That Hackers Are Adopting New Business-Like Strategies to Successfully Perform Malicious Activity.
The latest Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume XII released today by Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) concludes that cyber criminals are increasingly becoming more professional -- even commercial -- in the development, distribution and use of malicious code and services. While cybercrime continues to be driven by financial gain, cyber criminals are now utilizing more professional attack methods, tools and strategies to conduct malicious activity.
"As the global cyber threat continues to grow, it has never been more important to remain vigilant and informed on the evolving threat landscape," said Dan Lohrmann, chief information security officer, State of Michigan. "Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report continues to provide us with critical information on the most current online security trends, helping us better protect our state's infrastructure and citizen information."
Some key findings of the Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, Volume XII covers the reporting period of Jan. 1, 2007, through June 30, 2007 include:
-- Credit cards were the most commonly advertised commodity on
underground economy servers, making up 22 percent of all advertisements;
bank accounts were in close second with 21 percent.
-- Symantec documented 237 vulnerabilities in Web browser plug-ins. This
is a significant increase over 74 in the second half of 2006, and 34 in the
first half of 2006.
-- Malicious code that attempted to steal account information for online
games made up 5 percent of the top 50 malicious code samples by potential
infection. Online gaming is becoming one of the most popular Internet
activities and often features goods that can be purchased for real money,
which provides a potential opportunity for attackers to benefit
financially.
-- Spam made up 61 percent of all monitored e-mail traffic, representing
a slight increase over the last six months of 2006 when 59 percent of e-
mail was classified as spam.
-- Theft or loss of computer or other data-storage medium made up 46
percent of all data breaches that could lead to identity theft.
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