Internet Dangers Continue To Happen

New web pages are being infected at a rate of one every five seconds making staying safe on the Internet more of a hassle than ever before.

The first quarter of 2008 Security Report A Threat . . .

From Sophos Labs is enough to make you never want to go on the Internet again. The Internet dangers are ever growing and the report reveals cyber criminals aren't slowing down making keeping your computer safe on the Internet harder than ever.

Look at the events and trends that emerged during the first quarter of 2008 report with the goal to help users and businesses keep up with today's Internet threats in order to better defend against an attack.

The Internet

Alarming was the revelation that the web now hosts an unprecedented number of . . .

Internet threats, with Sophos discovering a new infected web page every five seconds. This is an average of more than 15,000 every day. This compares to their 2007 report when Sophos Labs reported they discovered a new infected web page every 14 seconds. They report that 79 percent of these pages are legitimate sites.

Even Scarier is the infected sites are not just "Mom and Pop" sites. Many of these sites are well established including well-known spyware companies Trend Micro and Symantec. So, just going to what you might consider to be safe websites isn't as safe as you might think.

Email 95% are spam

The good news:

The Sophos report stated that only one in 2500 emails was found to be carrying malware. That's 40 percent less than in 2007.

The bad news: Cyber criminals, instead of incorporating malware into the email in the form of an attachment, are now using unsolicited email to provide links to compromised web sites.

Sophos points out that there is still a common belief that unsolicited email, or spam, is not a threat. With a large portion of unsolicited or spam email linking to infected websites, they say, individuals and small business would be wise to address this growing computer problem before becoming a victim.