The August edition of the Symantec Intelligence report provides the latest analysis of cyber security threats, trends, and insights from the Symantec Intelligence team concerning malware, spam, and other potentially harmful business risks. The data used to compile the analysis for this report includes data from May 2011 through August 2012.

Report highlights

• Spam – 72.3 percent (an increase of 4.7 percentage points since July)
• Phishing – One in 312.9 emails identified as phishing (an increase of 0.109 percentage points since July)
• Malware – One in 233.1 emails contained malware (a decrease of 0.14 percentage points since July)
• Malicious Web sites – 1 website blocked per day (a decrease of 49.8 percent since July)
• The state of data breaches to date in 2012
• A look at a malicious email scam that pretends to come from Symantec
• A new Java zero-day vulnerability appears in...

Attacks by viruses, trojans and other malware have often been considered as a Microsoft problem. Whilst Microsoft may have initially been slow to realise the significance and impact of malware, with  Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing initiative, led by a former FBI agent, that the company started to get on top of the challenge.

Despite what the anti-Redmond crowd have blogged over the years, however, hackers didn’t target Microsoft products exclusively because they were insecure, or because the people involved had some ideological death-wish on the company. No – they did it because Microsoft was the most used end-point device environment in the world. Bill Gates’ “Windows Everywhere” ambition, once realised, made it the most obvious of all targets.

When times change, however, they don’t necessarily follow the script. In the personal computer era, the debate was about whether Linux (and more...

Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report showcases the threat landscape in 2011, highlighting that the number of malware attacks increased by 81 percent. Read the report to get the latest on key trends including advanced targeted attacks that are expanding to focus on organizations of all sizes, increased data breaches, and a continued focus on mobile threats by attackers.

Additional resources

Multimedia:

• Video: Did You Know: Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 17
• Podcast: Symantec Internet Security Threat Report Volume 17
• Webcast: Threat Update:  Top Trends to Focus on for 2012
• SlideShare: Symantec Internet Security Threat Report 2011, Volume 17, April 2012
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This month’s report takes a closer look at how spammers are taking advantage of major calendar events (The New Year, Valentine’s Day and the Olympic games) to target potential victims.

Report highlights

• Spam – 69.0 percent (an increase of 1.3 percentage points since December 2011): page 5
• Phishing – One in 370.0 emails identified as phishing (an increase of 0.06 percentage points since December 2011): page 7
• Malware – One in 295.0 emails contained malware (a decrease of 0.02 percentage points since December 2011): page 9
• Malicious Web sites – 2,102 Web sites blocked per day (a decrease of 77.4 percent since December 2011): page 11
• Spammers continue to take advantage of holidays and events: page 2
• Best Practices for Enterprises and Users: page 14

Resources

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