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Analyst Reports & Industry Surveys

Gartner: Virtualization security will take time

Dan Kaplan March 16, 2010

In five years, virtualized systems likely will be more secure than their physical counterparts, but until then, it will be rough sledding for organizations transitioning to the new technology, according to a new report from Gartner.

Web fraud losses more than double in 2009, says report

Dan Kaplan March 15, 2010

Losses related to cybercrime more than doubled from 2008 to last year, according to a report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

Survey shows value of planning infosec career

Angela Moscaritolo March 15, 2010

IT security professionals often have high career goals but, to their detriment, fail to adequately plan their careers, according to a survey released on Monday by IT security career consultancy website Information Security Leaders. The survey of nearly 1,000 practitioners found that 65 percent were "more than confident" that they will reach their ultimate career goal. A majority aspire to be a CSO, CISO, consultant or to start their own company. But 83 percent of respondents did not have a written career plan. Those with a defined plan earned "significantly more" money and than those without one, the survey also found. — AM

How IT can win the security battle

Matthew Steele, director of strategic technology, Symantec March 12, 2010

Phishing drops but becomes more targeted

Angela Moscaritolo March 08, 2010

The number of unique phishing reports received by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) decreased 29 percent during the fourth quarter of 2009, dropping from the all-time high of 40,621 reports in August to 28,897 in December, according to a report released Saturday by the nonprofit. While the number of unique phishes dropped, there was a significant rise in incidents focused on high-value targets, such as individuals with corporate bank account authority. — AM

Survey: More than half of security pros got raises

Dan Kaplan March 04, 2010

Salaries rose in 2009 for more than half of some 3,000 security professionals polled by nonprofit certification provider (ISC)2, the organization announced Thursday. The "2010 Career Impact Survey" found that 52.8 percent of respondents received raises last year, while 11 percent saw their paychecks and/or benefits slashed. Just under 5 percent of respondents were laid off. (ISC)2 attributed the results to increasing corporate and government dependence on information security. — DK

IBM report: Vulnerabilities fell in '09, attacks rose

Angela Moscaritolo February 25, 2010

The number of new and unpatched vulnerabilities decreased last year compared to 2008, but attack volume grew substantially, according to a new report from IBM ISS.

Professors highlight threat of mobile device rootkits

Dan Kaplan February 23, 2010

Two Rutgers University computer science professors are calling for more research into the detection of smartphone rootkits, which cannot be found in the same as they are on desktops.

Security spending, DLP projects to increase

Angela Moscaritolo February 23, 2010

Information security budgets will get a boost at many organizations in 2010, according to a study released Tuesday by IT research company TheInfoPro. The study, based on interviews of 259 security decision makers at Fortune 1000 and mid-size organizations, found that 40 percent of enterprises are planning to increase their 2010 security budgets. Data leakage prevention topped the list of projects planned for 2010, followed by identity management and compliance initiatives. — AM

Study finds cyberthreats to be largest security concern

Angela Moscaritolo February 22, 2010

More than traditional crime, natural disasters and terrorism, the security threat that enterprise IT departments are most concerned with is cybercrime, according to a study by Symantec.

Critical Infrastructure encounters the most web malware, report

Angela Moscaritolo February 11, 2010

Companies in the energy and oil sectors experienced a 356 percent higher rate of data-theft trojans in 2009 compared to other verticals, according to Scan Safe's newly released Global Threat Report.

ID theft still on the rise, but victims respond faster

Dan Kaplan February 10, 2010

Incidents of identity fraud and the total cost of fraud once again climbed last year, but consumers are becoming better equipped to respond to the occurrences of theft, according to a report released Wednesday by Javelin Strategy & Research.

Mass injection web hacks yield to targeted attacks

Angela Moscaritolo February 05, 2010

During the second half of 2009, attackers shifted their strategy away from mass-injection campaigns and instead focused on launching targeted attacks to infect high-profile websites, Websense found in a new report.

Report says U.S. needs new approach for security

Angela Moscaritolo February 01, 2010

A new report authored by retired Gen. Eugene Habiger of the U.S. Air Force finds that that the public and private sector must deploy secure systems that are properly tested and certified to withstand sophisticated cyberattacks.

New report finds Adobe programs most at risk

Dan Kaplan December 17, 2009

Adobe's popular programs — Acrobat, Flash Player, Reader and Shockwave Player — top the list of the most vulnerable applications in 2009, according to a report released Wednesday by security firm Bit9. All four applications had vulnerabilities rated "high," which mean hackers could have executed arbitrary code. Apple QuickTime, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, RealPlayer, Sun Java and Trillian followed on the list, created from stats in the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) vulnerability database. All apps on the list rely on the end-user, not an IT administrator, to patch. — DK

Report finds enterprises failing to protect sensitive data

Angela Moscaritolo December 09, 2009

Just 40 percent of respondents in a recent survey said all of their organizations sensitive data is adequately secured.

Security spend to rise

Angela Moscaritolo December 09, 2009

IT spending is likely to increase for many organizations in 2010, according to a survey released last week by investment bank Pacific Crest Securities. In the survey of 80 CIOs, 71 percent of respondents said they plan to increase their 2010 IT budgets, with server investment ranking as the top priority, followed by security. Forty-eight percent of respondents, meanwhile, said security spending is likely to increase the most on a dollar basis in 2010. — AM

Web attacks are financial boon for crooks, Cisco finds

Angela Moscaritolo December 08, 2009

Spam and spyware still are profitable for cybercriminals, but the big money is in banking trojans and other web exploits, Cisco's annual security report has found.

Cameroon, China riskiest country domains, McAfee finds

Dan Kaplan December 02, 2009

A small nation in Africa is responsible for the riskiest domain space on the internet, according to new McAfee research.

Gov't executives cite unstructured data as top concern

Angela Moscaritolo November 18, 2009

Seventy-nine percent of federal government IT executives surveyed recently said unstructured data increases the security risk within their organization.

Survey finds Mac, PC users are equal cybercrime victims

Dan Kaplan November 17, 2009

Because of phishing, operating a Mac yields no more protection from cybercrime than running a Windows machine, according to a survey conducted by security firm ESET.

Spam volume reaches new all-time high at 92 percent

Angela Moscaritolo November 03, 2009

During the third quarter of the year, spam accounted for 92 percent of all email on average, which breaks the previous record-high volume set during the second quarter of 2009.

Worm outbreaks climb, finds Microsoft threat report

Angela Moscaritolo November 02, 2009

Worms rose from being the fifth most prevalent type of malware worldwide during the second half of 2008 to the second most prevalent cyberthreat during the first half of 2009, according to Microsoft.

Data breach alerts linked to increased risk of ID theft

Angela Moscaritolo October 28, 2009

Consumers who have received a data breach notification letter face a much higher risk of identity theft, according to a recent survey.

Survey finds lax health care privacy in United States

Chuck Miller October 20, 2009

Despite regulations mandating protection of health care records, more than half of American hospitals fail to take appropriate steps to safeguard the privacy of patients, according to a new survey of health care IT security professionals.

Symantec finds rogue AV to be well-oiled profit machine

Dan Kaplan October 19, 2009

A new Symantec report released Monday reveals a booming marketplace for criminals involved in installing bogus anti-virus products on victim computers.

Payload spam volume rockets to new heights

Chuck Miller October 02, 2009

After leveling off during the past two years, the amount of spam laden with virus payloads has spiked, according to a new report.

Facebook cuts off accounts spreading rogue anti-virus

Dan Kaplan October 02, 2009

On the same day that the Internet Crime Complaint Center issued an alert on the ongoing dangers of social networking fraud, a computer security researcher reported on a new Facebook threat in which scores of fake member profiles were attempting to push rogue anti-virus programs.