According to a survey by security firm FaceTime
Communications, IT security incidents jumped more than 700% in the
first quarter of 2006, compared to Q1 last year, and the attacks
have grown in sophistication.
Although attacks on public channels such as AOL and Yahoo have
stabilised, they are increasingly switching between channels,
targeting both IM and P2P networks. Multi-channel incidents were 23
times higher than a year ago.
“The number of threats across multiple P2P and IM channels
demonstrates the need for a comprehensive approach to managing
threats,” says Tyler Wells, research director at FaceTime
Communications.
The rapid spread of converged networks supporting applications such
as VoIP seems to have added to the likelihood of attack and IT
directors and senior IT managers must be even more vigilant. A
recent survey by Continental Research has shown that 1.8 million
people made use of VoIP over the last year.