a web (not paper) magazine

Phishing reaches record numbers September 19, 2006

The number of brands exploited by online con artists grew to a record 154 in July, CNET reports.

A study from the Anti-Phishing Working Group showed that the number of brands under attack from phishing was up 20 percent from June and 12 percent from the previous record in May. The APWG findings indicate that scammers are no longer content to exploit only the best-known brands. Only 71 brands were targeted a year ago.

The number of reported phishing sites also rose steeply to 14,191, 18% higher than the previous peak. And even as phishers widen their nets, they are getting ever more focused on targeting financial services, which grew to 93.5% of all targets in July.

Attacks are getting more sophisticated, the APWG found, noting that a malicious site is now capable of placing a Trojan horse onto a system without user interaction. The Trojan involved, Web Attacker, is a Russian do-it-yourself toolkit sold for anywhere from $20 to $300.

21% of corporate mail is spam September 19, 2006

5% of all Internet traffic is infected with malware

The average annual cost of computer attacks on companies without adequate security devices has soared to EUR 136.000 (average cost for a company with 10 employees) due to productivity loss, bandwidth consumption, time dedicated by IT staff to cleaning the network, etc.

This figure arises from the fact that 21% of email reaching companies is spam, while five percent of all traffic is infected by some type of malware, according to data obtained by Panda GateDefender Performa, the high-performance SCM (Secure Content Management) appliance from Panda Software for protecting the corporate network perimeter.

In addition, almost 40% of Internet use in companies is non-work related. In fact, most visits to pornographic web pages occur during working hours.

Use of adequate security devices is fundamental in order to mitigate this situation. They not only offer excellent protection against Internet threats and inappropriate use of the Web, but also ensure a rapid return on investment. Taking as an example an average 10-employee company that has four malware infections per year, and where each employee receives five junk emails every day and wastes one hour a day on the Internet, the saving achieved by installing Panda GateDefender Performa is more than EUR 133,000, representing a return of almost EUR 50 for each euro invested in the corporate protection. Panda Software’s ROI calculator is available to users that want to check this data at http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/Testimonials/roitool/?sitepanda=empresas .

Panda GateDefender Performa blocks the principal external threats (malware, spam, inappropriate content), at the internal network entry point. It also includes a continuously updated address filter to rid the network of unnecessary traffic. This combines to prevent the productivity losses mentioned above.

Moreover, return on investment is even greater given the time saved by network administrators, as Panda Gatefender Performa is installed rapidly and easily in transparent bridge mode with no need to configure or redirect network traffic, ensuring the anti-malware, anti-spam and web content filtering kick into action immediately. The administration of all connected devices can be centralized thanks to its support for SNMP messages.

Panda GateDefender Performa scans the six most widely used protocols (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP4 y NNTP), and can transparently process up to 350 messages per second in SMTP and 170Mbps in HTTP traffic. The malware signature file is updated automatically every 90 minutes. It combines proactive and reactive protection by using both continuously updated signature files along with a powerful heuristic detection engine to seek out threats that have not been cataloged. The appliance is administered through a web console, allowing for secure remote management from any computer across HTTPS.

For a demo version of Panda GateDefender Performa, write to demo_performa@pandasoftware.com

For more information and evaluation versions of all Panda Software solutions, visit http://www.pandasoftware.com