Johannesburg, 10 Jan 2007
The latest report from security group Symantec highlights vulnerabilities in desktop applications among home PC users, saying 86% of all attacks by hackers, phishers and virus writers are aimed at home users.
Financial services businesses come second in the list.
"Because home users are less likely to have established security measures in place, they are being increasingly targeted by attackers for identity theft, fraud, or other financially-motivated crime," explains the Symantec report.
It also notes that attackers are now using a variety of techniques to escape detection - prolonging their presence on systems and stealing information or hijacking the computer for marketing and spam purposes.
"Attackers see end-users as the weakest link in the security chain and are constantly targeting them in an effort to profit," adds Symantec`s regional director, Patrick Evans.
Research firm World Wide Worx predicted in the middle of last year that SA will boast about 5.3 million PCs and laptops by the beginning of 2007, thanks to the increasing affordability of home PCs.
The types of attacks, notes Evans, are continuing along the lines of recent trends, in that widespread and obvious Internet worms are giving way to smaller, more targeted attacks focusing on criminality like fraud and data theft.
It was also found that 18% of all distinct malicious code samples detected recently by Symantec had not been seen before, indicating attackers are more actively attempting to evade detection by signature-based anti-virus and intrusion detection or prevention systems.
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