Malicious Online Attacks Grow by 81%

CEBU, Philippines - Oddly enough, malware is reported to be more prevalent in religious and ideological websites compared to adult/pornographic sites, based on information published in the 17th Symantec Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR).

Recognized as one of the most comprehensive information sources of active internet threats, the 17th ISTR volume notes that religious and ideological websites have three times the average number of threats (per infected site) compared to adult/pornographic sites.

The report also reveals that, contrary to most assumptions, adult/pornographic sites are not the number one launch pads of malware bits, with blogs/web communications class sites being ranked as the Top 1 most frequently malware exploited website category (with 19.8% of total number of infected sites).

Top 2 would list hosting/personal hosted sites, Top 3 - business/economy sites, Top 4 - shopping sites, Top 5 - education/reference sites, Top 6 - technology sites, Top 7 - entertainment/music sites, Top 8 - automotive sites, Top 9 - health/medicine sites and Top 10 - adult/pornographic sites.

In most cases, malware threats “hiding” in a site are not always something which a site webmaster intentionally authors, but rather manages to find a niche, hosted on sites with compromised securities.

The report also notes an increase of malicious attacks on systems by 81%, blocking 5.5 billion attacks in 2011 (3 billion in 2010). The report also notes that mobile threats are on the rise, and notes that cybercooks are getting smart, finding more gains in social network-based attacks.

Even QR Codes are reported to be security risks, reported to be a medium where cybercrooks get to “install” trojans into Android-driven mobiles.

The ISTR report is regularly published by Symantec Inc, one of the leaders in the software security solutions arena. The report is complied with data gathered from sensors monitoring global network activity, and as a report, it summarizes and provides analysis on malicious code trends, vulnerability trends and network attack trends.

It was initiated to offer consumers and enterprises pertinent information related to online threats, allowing the setup of better and effective security systems. Volume 17 of the ISTR report was published on April 2012, with gathered data dating back to 2011.