Password Cracking Tops IT’s Security Concerns
Password Cracking Tops IT’s Security Concerns
By Karen A. Frenkel
Password Cracking Prevails
Of the tested types of threats, the one experienced during the last three months by the most respondents (25%) is password cracking.
Recent Password Cracking Incidents
24.7% of respondents have experienced password cracking during the last six months or less, 22% experienced DDoS attacks, 21% experienced man-in-the-browser, 19.7% suffered DNS poisoning, and 18% experienced demand-in-the-middle attacks.
Attacks Equally Hard to Detect
According to respondents, all the investigated types of attacks are equally hard to detect and mitigate. Nevertheless, Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) have an edge: One-fifth of mid-size companies mentioned them.
Ranking of Attacks
Asked to rank attacks by difficulty of detection and mitigation, respondents answered as follows: APT: 19.7%, Ransomware: 13.7%, Spear Phishing: 13.7%, Rootkits: 13.3%, BYOD: 11.3%
Firewall and Anti-virus/Malware
One-third of companies use firewalls followed by anti-virus/malware. They also favor protection that limits the impact while security solutions are used.
Firewall Overall Use
The top five reasons companies use firewalls are: Anti-virus and malware: 70.3%, Firewall: 67.7%, Data Protection: 51.3%, Intern Filtering: 36%, Device or Port Control: 26.7%
Custom Software by Attack Type
The top five types of attacks companies fight with the help of custom software are: Advanced Persistent Threat: 55.7%, Spear Fishing: 52.3%, DNS poisoning: 51.7%, Zero-Day vulnerability: 51%, Ransomware: 47.7%
Consequences of Attacks
Time spent, either with the help desk or in-house IT support, and employee productivity are the areas most highly impacted by attacks.