Net security threats growing fast

Net security threats growing fast

• Vulnerabilities are now exploited in 5.8 days on average
• 1,237 vulnerabilities came to light in the first six months of 2004
• 95% of these vulnerabilities were rated very severe or above
• 4,496 Windows viruses were detected in the first six months of 2004
• This number is four and a half times as many as in 2003
• Latvia, Macau and Israel are the top three sources of attacks

The latest is a critical Security Update for JPEG Processing (GDI) which allows malicious code to be hidden within a JPEG image file.

Script kiddie malicious code insertion software is already available.