Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2001/10/11/web_server_attacks_doubled_over/

Web server attacks doubled over the last year

Survey finds 90% of firms hit by viruses too

By John Leyden

Posted in Security, 11th October 2001 16:45 GMT

Web server attacks have doubled over the course of the last year, despite increased spending on security.

That's the main conclusion of a survey of more than 2,500 organisations, sponsored by security firms TruSecure and Predictive Systems. The survey found that almost half those quizzed (48 per cent) had suffered a Web server attack in 2001, against 24 per cent in 2000. Viruses, worms, Trojans and other malware infected 90 percent of the respondents to the survey, even though 88 percent of those companies already had antivirus protection in place (which doesn't say a lot for AV software, but we digress).

Although security spending continues to grow, the survey threw up the interesting finding that a third of surveyed companies froze spending during the course of this year due to the general economic malaise we're all living through.

Corporate funding for infosecurity continues to grow overall, though the pace has slowed from that of recent years. Nearly one-third (29 per cent) of surveyed companies froze security spending sometime in 2001 due to adverse economic conditions.

Disgruntled company insiders remain far more a security threat than hackers and s'kiddiots but security the edge of corporate networks (through firewalls, VPNs and the like) remains the number one priority for BOFHs.

As far as directions in technology spending go, the survey concludes that 2002 will be the year that Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology finally takes off, a prediction that we've heard for the last three years but is yet to come about. We're far more in agreement with the survey's finding that wireless and enterprise security management will be hot areas next year though.

You can see the main findings of the survey, which were published in the October issue of Information Security magazine, here. ®

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