All the latest UK technology news, reviews and analysis

Websense warns of web-based malware epidemic

by Phil Muncaster

15 Sep 2009

Be the first to comment

  • Tweet this
Security
Web site owners are being urged to do more to protect their sites

The growing threat to businesses from the web was put into sharper focus today, after security vendor Websense reported a whopping 671 per cent rise in the number of malicious sites during the past year.

The firm's biannual State of Internet Security (PDF) report is compiled using email and web site scanning data collected by Websense Security Labs. The report found growth not only in the number of malicious sites but in the continued activity designed to compromise legitimate sites.

In the first half of 2009, over three-quarters of web sites with malicious code were found to be legitimate sites that had been compromised. Recent widespread attacks such as NineBall and Gumblar were blamed for injecting malware into sites on a huge scale.

"People can do a lot to protect their sites from being exploited, including examining their code, looking for vulnerabilities in their servers, and keeping any third-party applications patched," said Websense EMEA threat manager Carl Leonard.

Leonard also urged end users to employ real-time web scanning technology which will prevent them from visiting malicious sites even if they have been recently infected.

Websense also warned firms that encourage user-generated content on their sites. The report found that 95 per cent of user-generated comments on blogs, chat rooms and message boards are spam or malicious in intent.

"The attack surface area is increasing, and malware authors are targeting where users will be in their tens of thousands," said Leonard.

"If you have a site with a blog feature or somewhere users can post comments, it's very likely that malware authors will also want to use the feature to push out malicious links. They need to be filtered in real time."

Do you agree?

 

Add your comment

We won't publish your address
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms & Conditions. Your comment will be moderated before publication.

Poll

Flame virus poll

Are you confident that the UK's IT infrastructure is secure from attack in the wake of the Flame malware revelations?

34%

0%

11%

55%

Connect with V3.co.uk

Sign up to our daily or weekly newsletters

Symanteccloud

Social networking: a guide for IT managers

Social networking is almost ubiquitous. This white paper examines the benefits and risks and it looks at the different ways companies can reconcile them

Riverbed

Mitigating the risks of IT change

The importance of understanding your infrastructure

Java Developer

Java Developer Thomas Cook Online is the business unit...

Contract Systems Administrator, Windows £320 per day

Contract Systems Administrator, Southampton My...

PHP Web Developer, PHP, to £30k + 30% bonus

PHP Web Developer required to join my market-leading...

Java Developer x2, Spring, Hibernate, £40K

Java Developer x2, Spring, Hibernate, Swindon, £40K...

To send to more than one email address, simply separate each address with a comma.