Symantec has released the 11th volume of its semiannual Internet Security Threat Report. Over the past six months, Symantec has observed a fundamental shift in Internet security activity with an increase in data theft and data leakage and the creation of malicious code targeting information that can be used for financial gain.
Symantec has observed high levels of malicious activity across the Internet, with increases in phishing, spam, bot networks, Trojans, and zero-day threats. Some of the key findings of the report are below.
Attack Trends Highlights
* The government sector accounted for 25 percent of all identity theft-related data breaches, more than any other sector.
* The United States was the top country of attack origin, accounting for 33 percent of worldwide attack activity.
* Microsoft Internet Explorer was targeted by 77 percent of all attacks specifically targeting Web browsers.
* Home users were the most highly targeted sector, accounting for 93 percent of all targeted attacks.
* Symantec observed an average of 63,912 active bot-infected computers per day, an 11 percent increase from the previous period.
Vulnerability Trends Highlights
* Symantec documented 2,526 vulnerabilities in the second half of 2006, 12 percent higher than the first half of 2006, and a higher volume than in any other previous six-month period.
* Symantec classified four percent of all vulnerabilities disclosed during this period as high severity, 69 percent were medium severity, and 27 percent were low severity.
* Sixty-six percent of vulnerabilities disclosed during this period affected Web applications.
* Seventy-nine percent of all vulnerabilities documented in this reporting period were considered to be easily exploitable.
* Symantec documented 54 vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer, 40 in the Mozilla browsers, and four each in Apple Safari and Opera.
Malicious Code Trends Highlights
* Of the top ten new malicious code families detected in the last six months of 2006, five were Trojans, four were worms, and one was a virus.
* The volume of Trojans in the top 50 malicious code samples reported to Symantec increased from 23 percent to 45 percent.
* Trojans accounted for 60 percent of the top 50 malicious code samples when measured by potential infections.
* Polymorphic threats accounted for three percent of the volume
* Threats to confidential information made up 66 percent of the top 50 malicious code reported to Symantec.
* Keystroke logging threats made up 79 percent of confidential information threats by volume of reports, up from 57 percent in the first half of the year and 66 percent in the second half of 2005.
Phishing, Spam, and Security Risks Highlights
* The Symantec Probe Network detected a total of 166,248 unique phishing messages, a six percent increase over the first six months of 2006. This equates to an average of 904 unique phishing messages per day for the second half of 2006.
* Symantec blocked over 1.5 billion phishing messages, an increase of 19 percent over the first half of 2006.
* Throughout 2006, Symantec detected an average of 27 percent fewer unique phishing messages on weekends than the weekday average of 961.
* Organizations in the financial services sector accounted for 84 percent of the unique brands that were phished during this period.
* Forty-six percent of all known phishing Web sites were located in the United States, a much higher proportion than in any other country.
* All of the top ten security risks reported during this period employ self-updating.
View the complete Symantec Internet Security Threat report here.
Source :: Symantec