IBM Online Threat Report: Trust No One

From ChannelWeb's Rick Whiting: http://www.crn.com/security/219500277;jsessionid=LU4KR1SCVNOGRQE1GHOSKH4ATMY32JVN

Security threats on the Internet, including a 508 percent increase in the number of malicious Web links, have created "an unprecedented state of Web insecurity," according to a report from IBM.

The X-Force 2009 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report, issued Wednesday, said that security threats to Web surfers are no longer limited to "malicious domains or untrusted Web sites" and now include dangerous content on legitimate Internet sites. The result is "an unprecedented state of Web insecurity as Web client, server and content threats converge to create an untenable risk landscape," according to the report.

"The trends highlighted by the report seem to indicate that the Internet has finally taken on the characteristics of the Wild West, where no one is to be trusted," said X-Force director Kris Lamb, in a statement about the report. "There is no such thing as safe browsing today and it is no longer the case that only the red light district sites are responsible for malware. We've reached a tipping point where every Web site should be viewed as suspicious and every user is at risk."