State of Internet Security (Websense Report)

As we all know, the Web offers many benefits, yet numerous risks. The good folks at Websense recently released their Q3-Q4 Internet Security Report, outlining the magnitude of threats we face while browsing the Web. Using their patent-pending ThreatSeeker, they boast the ability to scan over 40 million websites and almost 10 million e-mails every hour. Here are a few highlights from their report:

• 70% of the top 100 most popular Websites either hosted malicious content or contained a masked redirect link to malicious sites.
• In the second half of 2008 more than 77% percent of the Web sites Websense classified as malicious were actually sites with seemingly “good” reputations that had been compromised by attackers.
• The number of malicious Web sites identified from January first 2008 through January first 2009 has increased by 46 percent.
• 57% of data-stealing attacks are conducted over the Web, representing a 24% increase over the six-month period.
• 39% of malicious Web attacks included data-stealing code, demonstrating that attackers are after essential information and data.

You can read their full report here.