XForce report on computer threats and vulnerabilities

by Christina Clark Jul 31st 2008

The XForce won't save you from a burning building but, they just might make your surfing safer. The XForce is IBM's team of Internet Security Systems researchers and they've just released the midyear report for 2008, listing all kinds of facts and figures on internet security. If you're really into data, go read the report for yourself. It might also be good for insomnia. I'll give you the quick highlights here.

The first part of the report is about computer threats and vulnerabilities. Top five companies with vulnerability disclosures (when they publish information about a security problem) in 2008 so far?

Apple
Joomla!
Microsoft
IBM
Sun

And a surprise at the bottom of the list, Wordpress, which is new on the list this year.

The most exploited vendors so far in 2008? Apple, HP and Microsoft. Not surprising targets since that's what most of us use in our daily life.

More worrisome is the increase in web application vulnerabilities. There has been a 51% increase since 2006. That means we, the people who are online all day, are being targeted more often. Some of these threats come from malicious websites which most of us have learned to stay away from. But some also come from web facing applications, like WordPress

What to look out for? One of the more common, and threatening, web vulnerabilities comes from cross site scripting (XSS) which basically makes a malicious web page, out to steal your information, look like someplace you visit all the time, like Best Buy or Amazon. Avoiding those just takes being really aware and cautious.

Any customer service message that directs you to a page to enter additional payment or personal information should always have an option to call as well. I once caught a message like this because I saw the site redirecting from a very odd address to a very well known address in the first seconds it was loading.

[via Blogspotting]

Tags: IBM, security, vulnerability, XForce

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Brian! said 12:01PM on 8-03-2008

Seriously? Are you telling me that the mac guy has not been completely honest in all those ads?

I thought Apple wasn't vulnerable to things like viruses or attacks. I mean, he is a somewhat out of shape guy with glasses, not a cook hipster.

Reality is crashing down on me!

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