Symantec report indicates Internet threats rising

Oct 10, 2003 12:00 PM

Symantec's latest report on Internet security cites a rise in the number of "blended" threats, an increase in security vulnerabilities, and a decrease in the amount of time it takes attackers to issue an exploit for a known vulnerability.

Blended threats, which combine malicious code with vulnerabilities to launch an attack, accounted for 60 percent of malicious code submissions in the first half of 2003, according to the company's Internet Security Threat Report. The number of blended threats increased by 20 percent.

Submissions of malicious code with backdoors -- which often are used to steal confidential data -- rose nearly 50 percent, from 11 in 2002 to 17 in 2003.

Symantec documented 1,432 new security vulnerabilities during the first six months of 2003, a 12 percent increase over the same period in 2002. The overall rate of attack activity in the past six months rose 19 percent over the last year. On average, companies experienced 38 attacks per week, compared with 32 attacks per week in 2002. However, only about 11 percent of companies suffered severe attacks, down from 23 percent in the first half of 2002.

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