Research reveals – 4/5 of security threats come from third-party software
By Bryan on February 21, 2012 | Vulnerabilities, stefan frei, security report, end-point vulnerabilities, secunia 2011 report, IT security , third party software
A few days ago Secunia has released a new security report which reveals that we are on a verge of an internet security meltdown as neither individual users nor business owners do not pay much attention to recent increase in security threats that come from third-party software.
Secunia's, one of the world's top IT security solutions provider report states that in 5 year's time vulnerabilities from third-party software have increased by 33% - from 45% to 78%. The rest 22% of vulnerabilities come from only two sources – 10% of security flaws in 2011 were found in Microsoft products and 12% were found in operating systems. The trends are loud and clear – if businesses do not increase security, 2012 will be crucial for economic stability of companies all over the world.
Highest Threat
The highest threat of all is end-point vulnerabilities. Statistics show, that a few years back there were over 340 end-point vulnerabilities discovered annually. However, in 2011 there were over 800 of vulnerabilities of this kind. Stefan Frei, Research Analyst Director in Secunia claims:
“By not addressing errors in software installed on typical end-points, organizations and individuals are in effect leaving their ‘windows’ wide open for cybercriminals to enter and compromise their most sensitive data. One problem often lies with the company’s security strategy.
The programs that an organization perceives as top priorities to patch as opposed to the programs that cybercriminals target are often vastly different. A typical corporate infrastructure contains layers of programs that organizations consider business-critical. Many organizations will focus on patching the top layer – business-critical programs – only. Cybercriminals, however, will target all programs and only need one vulnerable program to compromise the host.”
All in all, as the technologies advance, more and more of our devices connect to internet and new types of software are released. Cybercriminals do not sleep, their technologies improve as well. This is why neither individuals nor companies can underestimate the security of their information.
More Vulnerabilities news
Shocking: 9 out of 10 websites still vulnerable to old attacks
Did you know that less than 10% of websites are safe from attacks that have struck the internet in 2009? Back then there was a breakout of Man-in-the-middle (MITH) attacks that included an injection of a malicious code in to the browser but even after 3 years these problems are very sensitive. SSL Pulse reportIt seems that companies live in a bubble as far as IT safety is concerned. A project called SSL Pulse that is monitoring 200. Read more.- Mozilla's decision: Firefox is blocked from running unpatched Java plugins
- Facebook still is a wonderland for cybercriminals
- Microsoft talks about dangerous flaw in a Windows
- 17 high-risk flaws are fixed in Chrome; Google pays $47,500 in bug bounties
- Google bypassed Safari's No Tracking settings
- Google Wallet hack revealed
- Denial-of-service flaw is fixed by Oracle
- Firefox 9.0 and four critical flaws fixed
- Major flaw of Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x is patched
- Adobe Reader targeted again: Acrobat vulnerability
