Survey shows that spyware poses the biggest threat for organizations

Spyware now poses the biggest security threat to organizations, while threats from worms, viruses and browser-based attacks have lessened, according to research from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). Fifty-five percent of 1,070 organizations surveyed said that the volume of spyware they are combating has increased over the past 12 months.

Other security challenges organizations are responding to include lack of user awareness, cited by 54 percent of survey respondents; viruses and worms, 49 percent; authorized user abuse, 44.2 percent; and browser-based attacks, 41.5 percent. The percentages of incidents attributed to viruses, worms and browser-based attacks are down from the prior year’s survey.

That does not suggest that organizations can become complacent about such threats. When organizations were asked to identify the types of security attacks they’ll be challenged by in three years, viruses and worms topped their list:

• Virus/worm – 20 percent
• Spyware/malware – 14 percent
• Wireless access – 9 percent
• Email/attachments – 9 percent
• Phishing/social engineering/ID theft – 5 percent
• Remote access – 5 percent