Malicious Activity on the RiseYou h

Malicious Activity on the Rise
You have probably seen the stories on the news, viewed the humorous ads on TV, or read the headlines about cyberattacks. A case in point: Recently, authorities sent a college student to prison for 20 years for hacking the e-mail account of a U.S. vice presidential candidate. In a similar incident, clothing retailer TJX Companies admitted to carelessness in allowing the theft of millions of payment card numbers. In addition, in a humorous prime-time commercial, a clueless employee sets off a company-wide virus attack by clicking a “harmless” e-mail. Everywhere around you, you find examples of the malicious attacks that security professionals face every day.
While these attacks grabbed the attention of the news media and the public, most victims of cyberattacks don’t publicize the incidents at all. Every day, systems around the world are under threat. In most cases, the only people who ever know about these attacks are security professionals and IT personnel. Table 3-1 shows top attacks by source and the percent of attacks against the North American region in 2011.
Security professionals are responsible for protecting their systems from threats and for handling malicious attacks when they do occur. One of the most effective ways to protect computer systems is to ensure that vulnerabilities are mitigated throughout the IT infrastructure, quickly and efficiently.
In 2011, the United States was the top country of origin of attacks against targets in North America. The United States led the globe as the source of malicious activity, accounting for 21.1 percent of such incidents. U.S. sources accounted for 16.9 percent of Web attacks. The United States ranked second globally as a source of network attacks. Of computers in the United States, 12.6 percent are bot-infected. This high proportion means that the United States ranks highest as a source of attacks in North America, even if they originate outside the United States.