Symantec recently released their free 2008 report on Global Internet Security trends.
It’s bursting with interesting nuggets of Internet security research, heck, it’s practically a gold mine - check out three of the highlights:
1. Did You Know You Can Buy Compromised Credit Cards for $0.06 Each?
Credit card information was the most popular item for sale, comprising 32% of all ‘underground economy’ goods and services? And did you know obtaining said credit card information started from just $US0.06 each (like all good economies, there was a discount for buying in bulk).
2. China - The Most Infected Country, Buenos Aires- The Most Infected City
- China had the most bot-infected computers in 2008, accounting for 13 percent of the worldwide total
- Buenos Aires was the city with the most bot-infected computers in 2008, accounting for 4 percent of the worldwide total.
China and Brazil have some of the highest software piracy rates in the world. Because pirate software is typically unable to use automated security patches, it is likely many computers in these two countries have not been patched against virulent worms like the Conficker W32.Downadup infection.
Above Chart: Top 10 countries ranked by W32.Downadup infections
Source: Symantec
3. Mozilla Browsers Take Gold in War Against Vulnerabilities
Mozilla browsers had a window of exposure to a sample set of 83 vulnerabilities of less than one day in 2008 before being patched, just in front of Opera (1 day) but well ahead of Chrome (3 days) and Internet Explorer (7 days).
“Of all the browser vendors examined, Mozilla browsers maintained the shortest window of exposure while patching more vulnerabilities than other vendors. This may be indicative of their efforts to marshal the security community to responsibly report vulnerabilities through initiatives such as their Bug Bounty program.
The result of this effort is that more vulnerabilities are announced by the vendor at the time they are fixed, instead of being publicly reported by security researchers independently of the vendor. It is also worth noting that independent browser vendors, such as Opera and the Mozilla Foundation, had a shorter window of exposure in 2008 than the major operating system vendors, such as Apple and Microsoft.”
That’s just 3 highlights from this insightful 110 page report. I highly recommend the PDF download. Of course, Symantec’s ulterior goal is to scare the crap out of you and attract more customers, and damned if this report doesn’t do the job.
Download the PDF here.
