A dangerous combination of a massive increase in Web server attacks and poor patching practices is a major cause of concern for experts, according to a report issued today by several security organizations.
In a groundbreaking study that matched attack trends with patching cycle data, some conclusions came as a shock, said Rohit Dhamankar, the director of security research at 3Com TippingPoint, which contributed real-world attack information -- acquired from its intrusion detection systems -- to the report.
"The sheer number of attacks against Web servers was surprising," said Dhamankar. "In terms of attack volume, they were almost 60% of all so far this year. Hackers are after a foothold in the corporate network, to conduct client-side attacks against visitors of the site, but also once they have that foothold, to gain much higher privileges and use those to also steal data."
More: http://computerworld.com/s/article/9138081/
In a groundbreaking study that matched attack trends with patching cycle data, some conclusions came as a shock, said Rohit Dhamankar, the director of security research at 3Com TippingPoint, which contributed real-world attack information -- acquired from its intrusion detection systems -- to the report.
"The sheer number of attacks against Web servers was surprising," said Dhamankar. "In terms of attack volume, they were almost 60% of all so far this year. Hackers are after a foothold in the corporate network, to conduct client-side attacks against visitors of the site, but also once they have that foothold, to gain much higher privileges and use those to also steal data."
More: http://computerworld.com/s/article/9138081/