Awareness of Web Threats is Increasing in Corporate

Trend Micro has conducted a study on how aware corporate end users are of Web attacks. The study collected responses from 1,600 computer users in large companies across Japan, Germany, UK and US.

The results of the study indicate Web threats to be third in the rank of dangerous computer security threats after viruses and Trojans. They are recognized as more dangerous than phishing, pharming and spam.

Web threats are featured to contain blended techniques, series of variants, and regional and targeted attacks. They pose a wide range of probable costs to businesses and consumers that include identity theft, leakage of confidential corporate data, damage to brand name, and depletion of consumer confidence in Web business, said Raimund Genes, CTO of Trend Micro's anti-malware division. Earthtimes published this in news on July 23, 2007.

The survey results also indicate that globally, about 54% of respondents know about Web threats. This awareness is most widespread among German end users at about 63%. Next comes UK with 57%, US with 54% and Japan is the least aware country at 43%.

59% of respondents in all nations seem to associate Web attacks with malicious activities and then with how fast Web threats propagate. The study found Germans to be the most active in identifying the various characteristics of Web threats. To support this, it found that 75% of those asked in Germany rightly associated Web attacks with malware against 49% in UK.

The fact that the awareness for such severe threats is increasing is a good sign. With the combination of widespread use of the Web and the complex manner of protecting against Web attacks, the challenge to safeguard confidentiality of users' information as well as of corporate data has perhaps formed the biggest challenge in the past decade, said Genes.

Web attacks are more prevalent today and are a rapidly growing threat media. Unlike before, they have now become more sophisticated techniques with several components, and act as a platform to update, communicate and transfer stolen information. As hackers get more organized with profit as the prime motive, opportunity for crime has increased ever more.

Related article: Awareness Holds the Key to Lock Assaults of computer virus

» SPAMfighter News - 8/2/2007