Mar 27, 2008

Survey of security experts

Excerpt from Zero Day Threat

To get an experts’ consensus view of the cyber crime landscape, the authors conducted an online survey of 260 tech security professionals. The survey was conducted in February and March 2007, and produced two major findings. The first was that there is a consensus expectation among security experts that computer intrusions, data theft and identity fraud will continue on the upswing for the foreseeable future.

Criminals’ use of the following attack vectors will track as follows through 2010:

                                                          Decline            Stay the Same       Rise
Viral email attachments                        25.2%                  28.3%                46.5%
Bot-nets                                                 5.7%                  17.3%                77.0%
Phishing scams                                      7.1%                  12.5%                80.3%
Keyloggers                                             7.6%                  23.7%                68.7%
Root-kits                                                 5.0%                  27.5%                67.6%
Browser-based exploits                       12.9%                 17.9%                69.2%
Insider theft of personal data                  2.7%                 23.0%                74.4%
Database hacking of personal data        3.5%                 18.6%                77.9%

The second finding, represented below, should remove any doubts about the intensity of data theft and identity fraud campaigns. A staggering 82% percent of tech-security professionals encountered malicious software on their computers and more than half had their credit cards accounts used fraudulently.

Have you or anyone in your family ever encountered the following:
(Query, percent of respondents answering yes)

Had computer infected by malware                            81.5%
Had credit card used fraudulently                               52.5%
Had personal data stolen or lost                                  33.2%
Had personal data used in new account fraud           12.7%
Had debt card used fraudulently                                 10.7%
Had funds hijacked from an online account                  4.9%