IBM Releases 2007 X-Force Security Report, Hackers Are Gaining Sophistication

I spend a lot of time speaking my mind on the security problems the Information Technology sector faces in today's world, but I'm not alone, Help Net Security has a nice post detailing the findings of IBM's 2007 X-Force Security report. Today's IBM report revealed a disturbing rise in the sophistication of attacks by criminals on Web.

Check out this from Help Net Security - Report - Web browsers under siege from organized crime:

The Storm Worm, the most pervasive Internet attack last year, continues to infect computers around the world through a culmination of the threats the X-Force tracks, including malicious software (malware), spam and phishing. Last year, delivery of malware was at an all time high, as X-Force reported a 30 percent rise in the number of malcode samples identified. The Storm Worm comprised around 13 percent of the entire malcode set collected in 2007.

In other findings, for the first time ever, the size of spam emails decreased sharply to pre-2005 levels. X-Force believes the decrease is linked to the drop off of image-based spam. This decrease can be counted as a win for the security industry - as anti-spam technologies became more efficient at detecting image-based spam, spammers were forced to turn to new techniques.

The X-Force has been cataloguing, analysing and researching vulnerability disclosures since 1997. With more than 33,000 security vulnerabilities catalogued, it has the largest vulnerability database in the world. This unique database helps X-Force researchers to understand the dynamics that make up vulnerability discovery and disclosure.

The new X-Force report from IBM also reveals that:

• The number of critical computer security vulnerabilities disclosed increased by 28 percent, a substantial upswing from years past.
• The overall number of vulnerabilities reported for the year went down for the first time in 10 years.
• Out of all the vulnerabilities disclosed last year, only 50 percent can be corrected through vendor patches.
• Nearly 90 percent of 2007 disclosed vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable.

IBM estimates the Storm worm is netting just under $2 million per day for its creators which is a major incentive for hackers to create more and more similar attacks. The Worm's financial success comes the massive collection of autonomously running computers (botnet) which then launch profitable spam campaigns.

I have to admit if I were a little less scrupulous I would be tempted!!

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