Two weeks ago Sophos released their annual Security Threat Report for the year 2009. Based on their survey they have recorded an astonishing 70% increase in the number of attacks via Social Networking sites, with Facebook on the top of that list. One of the reasons for this is that most people tend to lower their guard when working on these popular networking sites. This was proved last year when the wife of the chief of the British secret service(MI6) posted highly revealing details about their residence and friends on her Facebook page. I wonder what 007 would have to say about that? I’m sure he would have been shaken and stirred!
Another interesting report , also released in the same week, was from the enterprise and consumer security company Trusteer. Trusteer reported that a whopping 73% of users share their Banking passwords with other non-financial websites and 47% do the same with their user ID. Why should you as a Webhost be worried? This poses a threat for Webhosts because once a set of access details have been stolen from a PC, it is quite likely a hacker will be able to access most of that users online accounts, including access to their hosting account.
According to Sophos, the US currently hosts the highest percentage of all compromised sites. At 37.4% in 2009 it is marginally higher than in 2008. China on the other hand, dropped from 27.7% in 2008 to just 11.2% in 2009(it was 51.4% in 2007). Though we don’t know their secret yet, keeping yourself and your customers aware of the latest trends in online security threats is an important step in curbing the spread of any new Virus/Worm. You can start by taking a look at Sophos’ report. It makes quite an interesting read and does not delve into the technical details. You can also compare it with last years report to get an idea of the changes over the last two years.
References:
http://www.sophos.com/
http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/07/05/mi6-chiefs-wife-puts-security-risk-facebook/
http://www.trusteer.com/
http://www.trusteer.com/company/press/trusteer-finds-two-thirds-internet-users-reuse-their-online-banking-credentials-other-
About the Author:
Hamish, works as a Senior Software Engineer in Bobcares. He joined Bobcares in July 2004, and is an expert in Control panels and Operating systems used in the Web Hosting industry. He is highly passionate about Linux and is a great evangelist of open-source. When he is not on his xbox, he is an avid movie lover and critic.
Nice and Interesting.