Financial service firms experience the highest number of malicious virus attacks compared to other industries, with almost half (48%) recording at least one severe incident in the six-month period from July to December 2003, according to research by Internet security systems vendor Symantec. Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report reveals that attacks on financial sector companies are four times greater than in the telecommunications industry. According to the research, threats to confidentiality are rapidly increasing, with a 148% growth in volume of malicious code submission. While older threats compromised security by exporting random documents, more recent viruses and blended threats also extract passwords, decryption keys and logged keystrokes. Blended threats – like Blaster, Welchia, SoBig.F and Dumaru – make up 54% of the top 10 submissions for the last six months of 2003. Full Story