Disruptions Due To Malware
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Webroot has announced the findings of a survey, along with other observations and research findings in its State of Internet Sercurity report. It found that that along with business disruptions, many firms are spending more on help desk functions as a result of malware infections.
In one case study laid out in the report, Webroot found that a company with 14,000 workstations lost US$108,000 due to the malware infections.
According to the Webroot study, 39 per cent of companies reported Trojan horse attacks, 24 per cent reported system monitor attacks and 20 per cent reported pharming and keylogger attacks.
In addition, 26 per cent of businesses reported that confidential information was compromised as a result of the spyware.
In spite of this, Webrot executives said that businesses still aren't treating the threats seriously enough.
"Despite the growth and severity of malware, more than 60 per cent of businesses don't have security plan. Businesses need to control this threat by adequately protecting themselves and their customers'" siad Peter watkins, CEO of Webroot.
It's obvious from this research that businesses worldwide are operating under a false sense of security. Because of the impact on corporate revenues and reputation that unprotected users can cause, proactive security should be a top priority for every company'" said Watkins.
Even as businesses fail to advance their security strategies, hackers are moving forward with their attacks.
Increasingly, many of these methods use the Web as a attack vector, Webroot reported. Company researches found that 1.7 per cent of 250 million URLs worldwide contain malware. While this may not seem like a high percentage, that is still 4.2 million sites. And Webroot reported that it found three million of those in 2006 alone.
"To help support this effort, the State of Internet Sercurity report will also offer some basic best-practices that companies can follow to help secure them against malware and cybercrime," added Watkins.
The State of Internet Sercurity report is issued on a quaterly basis as an in-depth review and analysis of the most pressing computer and data security-related concerns.
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Will IPTV hit the Mainstream?
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So we are all reading the same page, the basic premise if IPTV is receiving TV or video signals via an Internet connection. Users can receive these on a set-top box to allow a connection to multiple monitors or TVs for a wider distribution of services. The key players in the IPTV market are the telcos, broadband IP operators and the cable TV suppliers.
The current IPTV landscape and its future road map is difficult to comprehend. This makes it even harder for resellers to know where to position themselves now for the future.
"How is IPTV shaping up?" asked Paul Budde od communication consultancy BuddeComm. "It's not."
"We have all come to the conclusion that IPTV in its current format is not happening. This is not just the case for Australia because France rolled out a series of trials, but they all petered out."
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Love It Or Hate It The iPod is Here
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No matter what you say about Apple. it has certainly thurned the worls upside down with the creation of the iPod. Love it or hate it, no other product has come close to matching the popularity of the music device. Sony should have been the one to come up with the goods, having led the market with its Walkman, but Apple took the wind out of Sony's sails when it launched the first iPod onto the market five and half years ago.
Now Apple has sold its 100 millionth iPod and is far outpacing its closet competitors, which have failed to make even a dent in the portable music player's popularity.
Since its introduction in November 2001. the iPod has spawned an ecosystem of accesories that include cases, earphones, home stereos and hardware for playing the device in the car. In addition, it has driven the success of Apple's online music store iTunes, which sells more music over the Web than any other store. So far, Apple has launched 10 models and sparked a range of more than 4000 accessories. Soon Apples will be launching an iPhone and an iTV.
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Antivirus Drives Security Software
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Driven by continued growth in the antivirus software market, worldwide security software revenue is expected to total US$9.1 billion in 2007, a 10.7 per cent increase over 2006 revenue of $8.2 billion.
Antivirus software revenue is expected to total US$4.9 biliion in 2007, and will account for 53.8 per cent of the total security software industry.
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China and US home of malware threats
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According to security vendor Sophos, just 0.18 per cent or one in 555 emails were infected in March, yet it detected 8835 new threats, bringing the total protected against to 231,548. Hackers are favouring spam with links to infected web pages.
Top 10 countries hosting malware-infected websites
| 1. | China | 35.6% | | 2. | United States | 32.3% | 3.
| Germany
| 7.5% | | 4. | United Kingdom
| 5.5% | | 5. | Russia | 4.6% | | 6. | France | 3.6% | | 7. | Netherlands | 1.3% | | 8. | South Korea
| 1.2% | | =9. | Ukraine | 1.0% | | =9. | Canada | 1.0% | 10.
| Others | 6.4% |
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From January to the end of March, security vendor Sophos identified an average of 5000 new infected web pages every day, indicating that this route to infection is becoming more popular with cybercriminals. With computer users becoming increasingly aware of how to protect against email-aware viruses and malware, hackers have turned to the web as their preferred vectore of attacks.
Top 10 malware families hosted on Websites Q107:
| 1. | Troj/Fujif | 50.8% | 2.
| Troj/Ifradv | 12.1% | | 3. | Troj/Decdec
| 10.4% | | 4. | Mal/Packer | 6.3% | | 5. | JS/EnclFra | 5.5% | | 6. | Mal/FunDF | 2.3% | | 7. | Mal/Psyme | 2.2% | | 8. | Troj/Zlob | 2.0% | | 9. | Mal/Behav | 1.2% | | 10. | Mal/Delpbac | 0.4% | | 11. | Others | 6.8% |
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