Security Watch | Matt Hines » Spyware takes malware crown

November 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Spyware takes malware crown

TAGS: Security

According to new research published by the Computing Technology Industry Association, better known as CompTIA, security admins are being forced to ward off greater volumes of spyware than ever before as other breeds of attack have become less prevalent.

In a survey of just over 1000 organizations recently carried out for the industry group by researchers at TNS, some 55 percent of those IT professionals interviewed said that their employers have dealt with larger numbers of spyware attacks over the last twelve months as other threats have cooled off.

Respondents to the survey charted a lack of user awareness to security issues (54 percent), virus and worm attacks (49 percent), end user driven abuse of IT systems (44 percent) and browser-based threats (41.5 percent) as other leading problems they are being forced to deal with.

In a similar survey conducted last year, respondents had indicated that they were still struggling with more frequent instances of viruses, worms and browser-based attacks, compared to this year's results.

CompTIA officials said in a report summary that the growing spyware issue illustrates just how rapidly the malware community moves from one attack technique to another as they discover new methods for stealing valuable information.

"Spyware was rarely mentioned as a concern just a few years ago," said John Venator, president and chief executive officer, CompTIA. "It's another example of how information security threats are moving targets that can pose great challenges to even the most security-conscious organization."

At the same time, CompTIA warned that organizations cannot become complacent about the other types of attacks, and based on the survey responses it appears that most of those people interviewed are preparing for subsequent shifts in threat delivery patterns.

Asked to identify the types of security attacks they expect to be most troubled by in three years time, viruses and worms (20 percent) still topped the list, followed by spyware (14 percent), wireless threats (9 percent), e-mail-borne exploits (9 percent), phishing (5 percent) and issues related to remote access (5 percent).

In response to all those concerns, CompTIA said that many organizations are prepared to loosen their purse strings, which has to make all the security vendors hoping to cash-ion on the problems whet their lips.

"To combat the seemingly endless waves of cyber-attacks, we found that organizations plan to increase spending across all areas related to security," Venator said. "Nearly one-half indicate they intend to increase spending on security-related technologies, and another one-third expects to increase spending on security training."

Posted by Matt Hines on November 27, 2007 01:57 PM

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