Web server attacks on the increase

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 26 Apr 2005 at 10:29

Attacks on Web servers and websites rose by more than a third in 2004, according to a new report.

The Zone-H survey for the Infosecurity Europe conference found that the 36 per cent rise meant there were more than 400,000 server attacks and website defacements.

Two thousand five hundred servers are attacked each day, with the US government a frequent target. Its servers faced 186 'special attacks' while a further 49 attacks were made directly on US military servers.

Zone-H's Roberto Preatoni said the number of attacks could rise dramatically when VoIP services and 3G are more widespread.

'Once GSM telephone platforms are replaced by VoIP/3G phones, which work in the same way as Internet servers (they each might have their own IP address), the number of Web servers will increase to 1.5 billion,' he explained.

'Each of these phones/terminals will be potentially subject to the same vulnerabilities as traditional Web servers and personal computers and by a process of simple multiplication there could be as many as 80,000 hacks a day on these devices that will often hold the digital equivalent of someone's life! The same hacks could even turn the phones/terminals into remote-controlled snooping devices leading to a complete loss of privacy and opening the way to massive industrial espionage incidents.'