Internet threats move towards the Desktop

According to the eighth volume of the Internet Security Threat Report by Symantec Corp., internet attackers are moving away from large, multipurpose attacks on network perimeters, and are instead favouring attacks directed at web and client-side applications.

During the first half of 2005, 74 percent of the top 50 malicious code samples reported to Symantec involved malware that exposed confidential information. It is now more important than ever that computer users keep up-to-date with security patches and security solutions.

Furthermore, botnets seem to be spreading, and are becoming available to rent, for use in spamming and so forth. Symantec observed an average of 10,352 active bot network computers per day, which is an increase of 140 percent from the previous reporting period.

And of course as we all know, phishing is on the rise. The volume of phishing messages grew from an average of 2.99 million messages a day to 5.70 million. Symantec reckons something in the region of one in every 125 messages is a phishing attempt.

All in all, it is a time for the Internet user to be careful, and well educated about the threats that lurk on the Net.