IT security threat rising: Symantec

Symantec, a global player in information security, in its latest report on internet security threat has indicated that there has been rise in threat to confidential information.

The financial services sector experienced the highest ratio of severe attacks, with 16 severe events per 10,000 security events. Mobile phones are also not spared from the attacks. The US continues to be the top attack source country.

The 'Internet Security Threat' is the seventh bi-annual report from the US-based company which provides analysis and discussion of trends in internet attacks, vulnerabilities, malicious code activity, and additional security risks between July 1 and December 31, 2004.

During the period, malicious code created to expose confidential information accounted for 54 per cent of the top 50 malicious code samples received by Symantec.

This was up from 44 per cent in the first six months of the year and 36 per cent in the second half of 2003. This is partially owing to the proliferation of Trojan Horses which represented 33 per cent of the top 50 malicious code reported to Symantec.

The report also highlighted the phenomenon of phishing "" a method to steal confidential information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and other financial information.

By the end of December 2004, the company's products Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam antifraud filters were blocking an average of 33 million phishing attempts per week.

This, states the report, was up from an average of nine million per week in July 2004. This represents an increase of over 366 per cent.

The report has indicated that this problem will continue to be a very serious concern over the next year.

Popular web applications accounted for 48 per cent of all vulnerabilities documented during the second half of calendar 2004.