Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    Symantec Report Bares Internet Threats

    By
    Dennis Fisher
    -
    March 22, 2004
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      While the number of vulnerabilities found in software essentially has plateaued, the flaws are increasingly easy to exploit and, more often than not, quite severe, according to a new report.

      As bad as the vulnerability problem is, the virus plague currently tormenting Internet users may well be worse. In the second half of last year, there were 250 percent more new Windows viruses discovered than in the same period in 2002, the report shows—a total of 1,702 new Win32 viruses.

      Worms, however, beat out their virus cousins as the most common source of attack activity, according to the Internet Security Threat Report, released by Symantec Corp. Together, worms and blended threats accounted for 43 percent of all of the attack traffic detected by Symantecs DeepSight Threat Management System sensors.

      “Thats a continuation of what weve seen in past years, and its likely to continue that way for some time,” said Vincent Weafer, senior director of Security Response at Symantec, based in Cupertino, Calif. “No surprise there.”

      Another entry in the “no surprise” category is the state of software security. Of the more than 2,600 new vulnerabilities discovered in all of last year, 70 percent were easy to exploit—meaning that either they didnt require exploit code or that code was readily available. Symantec analysts also found that, overall, the volume of exploit code available on the Internet is increasing.

      Among the blended threats from last year, Bugbear was the most prevalent, Symantec said. The Blaster worm, which hammered the Internet last August and still continues to cause trouble in some quarters, came in second, with SoBig.F, Redlof and Swen rounding out the top five. Many of these threats, including Blaster and SoBig.F, install a back door as part of their infection process. Symantecs analysts found that attackers who write other threats are including functionality in their worms and viruses that scan for and then exploit these back doors. Often, such compromised machines are used later in distributed denial-of-service attacks.

      This trend has continued into 2004, with worms such as MyDoom installing back doors and others, including Doomjuice, seeking out PCs infected by MyDoom and sneaking in through the open back door.

      Symantec produces its Internet Security Threat Report every six months using data collected by its DeepSight sensors deployed in enterprises and other large organizations.

      /zimages/4/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms Security Center at http://security.eweek.com for security news, views and analysis. Be sure to add our eWEEK.com security news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page: /zimages/4/19420.gif http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/my/addtomyyahoo2.gif

      Avatar
      Dennis Fisher

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×