In the 2008 edition of the Cisco Annual Security Report, the company identifies the year's top security threats and offers recommendations for protecting networks against attacks that are propagating more rapidly, becoming increasingly difficult to detect, and exploiting technological and human vulnerabilities.
"Every year we see threats evolve as criminals discover new ways to exploit people, networks and the Internet. This year's trends underscore how important it is to look at all basic elements of security policies and technologies," said Patrick Peterson, Cisco fellow and chief security researcher. "Organizations can lower their risk of data loss by fine-tuning access controls and patching known vulnerabilities to eliminate the ability for criminals to exploit holes in infrastructures. It is important to upgrade applications, endpoint systems and networking equipment to help ensure that corporate systems run smoothly and minimize risk."
The overall number of disclosed vulnerabilities grew by 11.5 percent over 2007, while vulnerabilities in virtualization technology nearly tripled from 35 to 103 year over year. Cisco researchers saw a 90 percent growth in threats originating from legitimate domains, nearly double what was seen in 2007. However, the volume of malware successfully propagated via e-mail attachments is declining. Over the past two years (2007-2008), the number of attachment-based attacks decreased by 50 percent from the previous two years (2005-2006).
To access the free report, visit www.cisco.com/go/securityreport.