IT security threats at record levels: IBM

Vulnerability disclosures are increasing dramatically, having reached record levels for the first half of 2010, IBM said yesterday in its X-Force 2010 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report.

The report showed that over half, 55 per cent, of all these disclosed vulnerabilities had no vendor-supplied patch at the end of the period.

The report revealed that web application vulnerabilities continued to be the leading threat, accounting for more than half of all public disclosures.

In addition, covert attacks increased in complexity hidden within JavaScript and Portable Document Formats (PDFs), while cloud computing and virtualisation were noted as key future security topics for enterprise organisations.

"In the first-half of 2010, organisations were doing more to identify and disclose security vulnerabilities than ever before.

This in turn is having positive effects on the industry by driving more open collaboration to identify and eliminate vulnerabilities before cyber criminals can exploit them", the report stated.