Fergie's Tech Blog

The Threat of the Ajax Super-Worm

Pete Simpson writes on SecurityPark.co.uk:

The rapid evolution of “Web 2.0” has sparked the convergence of social networking on a massive scale and the adoption of new combinations of technologies that significantly increase the so-called ‘attack-surface’. This combination offers irresistible opportunities to organised crime.

In recent years, malware attacks have been targeted and mass worms have been quiet. The days of blockbuster headlines about mass infections such as Slammer are long gone. Or are they? Are we about to face the next Super Worm?

About two years ago, organised criminals discovered around 70% of web applications harboured security flaws and began to switch from targeting OS weaknesses to those in the applications. The web is now the preferred vector for malware. At the same time, the nature of the web has been transformed, through the phenomenon of social networking, and in a sense we have become the ‘we’ in ‘web’.

posted by Fergie @ 3/14/2008 12:10:00 PM