Microsoft: Phishing - Not Zero-Day Threats - Cause the Most Problems

[Peaches]

Microsoft: Phishing - Not Zero-Day Threats - Cause the Most Problems

By Steve Ragan on October 12, 2011

On Tuesday, in addition to the monthly "Patch Tuesday" security updates for Windows and Office platforms, Microsoft released the eleventh volume of its Security Intelligence Report. The report, which gives a deep look into security trends, has some interesting data when it comes to malware propagation.

Less than one-percent of the exploits observed in the first-half of 2011 were targeting Zero-Day vulnerabilities Microsoft said. In fact, most of the attacks centered on previously patched issues, and leveraged Phishing to spread the malicious payloads. According to the data, Phishing accounted for 44.8-percent of the malware spread during the reporting period.

Sticking to Phishing, social networks and their users were a favorite target, as the socially engineered attacks originated on such sites, reaching a peak of nearly 85-percent in April. This trend hammers home the point made by the software giant, when they noted that the Web is the main source of malicious infections and malware propagation.

Story & graph - http://www.securityweek.com/microsoft-phishing-not-zero-day-threats-cause-most-problems