Web@Work survey highlights keylogging threat

Websense, Inc. has released the results of the company’s seventh annual Web@Work study, conducted by Harris Interactive. From March 15 to March 24, 2006, 351 US IT decision-makers who work for organisations with at least 100 employees, at least 1 percent of whom have internet access, were interviewed online, and from March 16 to April 4, 2006, 500 US employees ages 18 and older who have internet access at work and who work for organisations with at least 100 employees were surveyed over the telephone on web and software application usage in their workplace.

According to the survey, more organisations were hit by a hacking tool or a keylogger in 2006, as almost one in five (17 percent) of organisations have had employees launch a hacking tool or a keylogger within their network.

A keylogger can be defined as one of the most dangerous types of spyware, which has the ability to record keystrokes and screen shots and can be replayed later to reconstruct a user session. These applications can be utilised by hackers to steal passwords and confidential information, which can then be used to provide full access to corporate systems and files.

The 2006 Web@Work survey also highlighted the growing threat of bots. A bot (short for robot) is software that can be unknowingly installed on an end-user’s PC that communicates with a command and control centre. The command and control centre has unauthorised control of many bot-infested PCs from a single point, and can be used for launching distributed Denial of Service attacks, acting as a spam proxy, and hosting malicious content and phishing exploits.

Only 34 percent of IT decision-makers said they are very or extremely confident that they can prevent bots from infecting employees’ PCs when not connected to the corporate network. Furthermore, 19 percent of IT decision-makers indicated that they have had employees’ work-owned computers or laptops infected with a bot. As bots are a relatively new threat to many IT decision-makers, there is still some discrepancy on whether or not to filter bot traffic—the survey found that 62 percent of IT decision-makers reported that their companies filter bot traffic in their network; 14 percent do not; 24 percent were unsure.

Upon evaluating how the IT security landscape has changed in the past 12 months, spyware within the enterprise continues to be a problem. 92 percent of IT decision-makers surveyed estimated that their organisation has been infected by spyware at some point.

The threat of phishing has stayed relatively constant in the past 12 months, as hackers utilise new deception techniques to lure in internet users. Four in five IT decision-makers (81 percent) report that their employees have received a phishing attack via e-mail or instant messaging (IM). Of those, nearly half (47 percent) of IT decision-makers said their employees have clicked through the URL.

•Date: 18th May 2006• Region: World • Type: Article •Topic: ISM
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