The State of Internet Security

Just last week, Websense Security Labs released it's State Of Internet Security report. This report is released twice a year and it covers all changes in website and internet security in the past 6 months. While we can generally expect that internet vulnerabilities, spam and other attacks will rise, this report was especially grim.

According to the report, the number of malicious sites on the web has grown over 230% in the last six months. This number reaches over 670% in the last year.

While these numbers seem shocking, it's nothing compared to the other findings in this report.

• In the last 6 months, nearly 80% of websites that had malicious code were actual legitimate sites that had been compromised.
  We have seen this happen with many major sites such as facebook and other social media sites. This means that going to a trusted site may not be safe.
  
  
• 95% of comments on message boards, chat rooms and blogs are spam.
  
  
• Nearly 86% of all spam email has links to malicious websites. This means that unless you absolutely trust the person sending you email, you should not click the links inside.
  Just clicking the link may cause you harm if you are not protected.
  
  
• In June of this year, the number of emails with viruses increased 600% over the previous month.

Wow! Those numbers are incredible. As you can see, the internet is not a very safe place. According to this report, it's not getting any safer either!

So, what should you do to avoid becoming a statistic? Keep a keen eye and use common sense. Obviously, having good security software will help to protect you, but the best protection you can get comes right from your own brain. Don't open unknown emails, don't click links to sites you don't recognize, always make sure you are on a safe site before giving out any personal information and make sure to keep your software updated!

Until next time, stay safe out there!

~Gary

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