IP: Israel, U.S. among top sources of cyber attacks, study finds

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From:
> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
> Dave - if you deem appropriate for IP, request this post be done
> anonymously.  Thanks.
>
>
> In speaking to other security professionals in the field (plus some media
> folks) this article looks to be simply a vendor's marketing / biz dev
> effort. You go to the Riptech website, find the report, and then you fill
> out a form with customer contact information. The website then says a
> representative will contact you within 24 hours.
>
> That's not community service, or news, that's a vendor-initiated
> infomercial. The report can be requested at
> <http://www.riptech.com/securityresources/form9.html>
>
> Further, here are some comments from one of those mediafolks I was talking
> with this morning:
>
> >> Here are a few observations/comments from a Washington Post writeup of 
> this
> >> report located at <http://www.washtech.com/news/regulation/14884-1.html>
> >
> >> Tracking the security breaches of more than 300 clients across the world,
> >> Internet security firm Riptech said it verified at least 128,678 cyber
> >> attacks
> >> from July to December 2001. While few of the attacks detected posed a 
> ³severe
> >> threat,² the Alexandria company said it was surprised by the volume.
> >>
> >> ³This report should clearly illustrate that the Internet security 
> threat is
> >> real, pervasive, and perhaps more severe than previously anticipated,² the
> >> report said.
> >
> > So on one hand, only a few of these attacks are "severe" but yet the report
> > says they are  "more severe" than previous. Which is it?
> >
> >> The Riptech study did not include ³worm² attacks. Computer worms are
> >> reproducing programs that run independently and travel across network
> >> connections. The main difference between viruses and worms is the 
> method in
> >> which they reproduce and spread. Including worms in the count 
> increased the
> >> number of attacks by 63 percent.
> >
> > This is strange  - worms were the major security story in 
> FY01.....maybe their
> > researchers didn't want to take a position on them, since everyone else
> > already did?
> >
> >> Most analysts assume attacks on a company¹s Internet site are 
> opportunistic
> >> and the attacker is broadly searching for any vulnerable system, Riptech
> >> said.
> >> But the report found that 39 percent of attacks targeted a specific 
> system or
> >> company. If the company had more than 1,000 employees, the rate of 
> targeted
> >> attacks rose to 42 percent.
> >
> > Any DC lobbyist will tell you that statistics can be made for anyone to
> > support any position.

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