Akonix Security Center Tracks 18 IM Network Attacks in January 2006
Akonix Systems, a provider of Instant Messaging (IM) security solutions, announced that its Security Center team tracked 18 attacks against IM networks in January. The company said that while this figure is a 500% increase from last January's assessment, it is however, a decrease of 45% from December 2005. The Akonix Security Center also found 22 new threats on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks in January. Akonix said that January kicked off the year with a high-threat level Zero-day WMF file vulnerability, which was eventually sent over unmanaged IM networks by hackers looking to infect additional PCs. These types of attacks have the potential to cause widespread damage to corporate networks. New worms identified in January include YMob, Tilebot, Nabload, Loxvot, Breplibot and Hazif. The most common attack was the Tilebot virus, which had three variants. Overall, Akonix security analysts issued a total of 10 new security policy updates, using the SPIM and protocol update system. This automatically pushes updates to customers and blocks worms and viruses in real-time at the network perimeter. "It's apparent that since the start of last year, IM security has made its way to the top of global executives' priority lists and the 500% increase in attacks year-on-year explains why," said Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing at Akonix Systems. "If IM-based worms follow the same growth trend as last year, we are potentially looking at thousands of viruses and other malicious content striking IM networks in 2006. It's critical that businesses, large and small, protect and manage their employees' real-time communications use, otherwise they risk a costly and damaging attack."
Reproduced from an article published by IT News Online
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