-- PAGE 7 --
Network Security Measurements
An ever-increasing number of people are studying, working and entertaining through networks, meaning a corresponding increase in opportunities to attack them, including attacks exploiting weaknesses in client machines and ones exploiting weaknesses on servers or on networks. Terminal computers face challenges from Trojans, Worms, Viruses, spyware, malware and other malicious software. And, numerous attacking tools are available widely on the Internet for download and modification, for attacks which can be generated by anyone with only a basic understanding of a computer network.
It is worth mentioning that these problems are further exacerbated by the volume of different vulnerabilities that have been discovered and the time lag between discovery and disclosure. Speed of disclosure is of the essence here, since the speed with which security issues spread through networks is now counted in minutes rather than hours or days (See table 1)
| Worm Virus Impact upon the Global Network | |
| Virus Type | Timescale for global infection |
| Worm Virus | 10 minutes |
| Klez Virus | 2.5 hours |
| Red Code Virus | 12 hours |
| Email Virus | Several days |
| Macro Virus | Several weeks to several months |
| Multi-partite Virus | Several months to several years |
| Data source: ICSA Labs 9th annual Computer Virus Prevalence Survey | |
Table 1: Worm Virus Impact upon the Global Network
Since CERT2 started tracking vulnerability numbers in 1995, more than 34,000 vulnerabilities have been reported and cataloged. These numbers have been almost doubling each year since 19993 (See figure 5 below).
Figure 5: Network security vulnerability chart
-- PAGE 7 --
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Glossary | References
Notes:
2 CERT ORG. 2007 [online]. [1 Aug 2007]. Available from World Wide Web : http://www.cert.org/stats/cert_stats.html
3 CERT ORG.2007 [online]. [3 Aug 2007]. Available from World Wide Web : http://www.cert.org/stats/fullstats.html
Xuhua Ji, September 2007
(You are free to reproduce any of the information in this article or part thereof, so long as the byline remains intact and a link is provided back to this page)
add to del.icio.us
We offer Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 training courses: read more
Further reading on network security
0844 493 3699
Article Feed --free articles
- What is Internet marketing? read more >>
- Internet marketing tips - onsite SEO (pdf opens in a new window) read more >>
- Email messaging services and protocols (pdf opens in a new window) read more >>
- Search engine optimisation: an integrated approach (opens in a new window) read more >>
- How to find a good web designer or eCommerce provider - read more >>
- How to keep old computers out of landfill - read more >>
- How enterprises can save money on software licenses - read more > >
- More green computing tips for businesses - read more > >
- How to find a domain name - read more > >
- how to find a web hosting package - read more > >
- IPSs- an intro read more > >
- currency converter - read more > >
- article marketing - read more > >
- startup businesses - read more > >
free links
- free technical resource links read more > >
- list of free business directories read more > >
news
- cambodia orphanage appeal read more > >