Hacking Dangers on the Rise in 2005

Hacking attacks are on the rise in 2005, according to security experts, and the attacks are starting to get more complex.

According to an article by Iain Thomson on vnunet.com, security experts are warning that even though the volume of traditional e-mail attachement viruses has fallen, new variants are appearing with increasing speed. In addition to that, other threats like phishing and spyware are also on the rise.

"We have seen more attacks in the past six months than we have in the past couple of years," Bill Archer, president of AT&T Europe, told Thomson. "The diversity, frequency and - I hate to say it - innovation in the way that company assets are attacked are changing rapidly. You need to be constantly keeping on top of it."

"Even if you look at the recent instant messaging worms people are using different tools and technology," Malcolm Harkins, director of information security at Intel, told Thomson. "People have got smarter about e-mail threats, but they have not translated these skills to instant messaging and other media."

Thomson says that the experts agree that while most computer users are "reasonably virus-aware, new social engineering techniques are still catching them out." For example, users know that clicking on a URL could be a security breach, but they are still falling for instant messages that do just that.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2135466/hack-attack-danger-soars-2005