Internet Security Firm Decries The State of Internet Security

While overall hacker activity may have declined in the second quarter, that’s not cause to sit back and relax, said Internet Security Services (ISS) in a report on the state of security. In fact, the number of security incidents continue to climb. According to ISS’s quarterly Internet Risk Impact Summary Report, which was released Monday, the number of security incidents — which it defines as an actual attack or a threat that carried a high rate of risk to users — increased 13.7 percent in the second quarter over the previous three months. That contrasted with a 15 percent decline in overall low-level hacking, said ISS, which uses data acquired from more than 400 network- and server-based intrusion detection sensors to build its four-times-a-year report. These so-called security events typically cause little or no damage, and may be as mundane as a port scan. “Historically, the number of vulnerabilities has outpaced threats,” said Chris Rouland, the vice president of ISS’ X-Force security intelligence team. That trend continues, for ISS’ data indicates a 20 percent increase in the number of vulnerabilities during the first quarter of 2003. Full Story