IBM in its X-Force 2009 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report said that there was a 508 percent increase in the number of new malicious Web links. The report shows an increasing state of Web insecurity as “web client, server and content threats converge to create an untenable risk landscape.”

According to Mark Cox in his article: “State of web insecurity is unprecedented: IBM” published in echannelline.com, “this problem is no longer limited to malicious domains or untrusted Web sites. The X-Force report notes an increase in the presence of malicious content on trusted sites, including popular search engines, blogs, bulletin boards, personal Web sites, online magazines and mainstream news sites. The ability to gain access and manipulate data remains the primary consequence of vulnerability exploitations.”

This means that while more and more people share contents on the web, the threat also increases due to content providers being unmindful of their sites security. The benefits of making knowledge and information easily accessible and shareable due to advances in technology has its negative effects if security is not given primary consideration. Web criminals are taking advantage of this situation especially now that “interoperability between browsers, plugins, content and server applications has dramatically increase the complexity and risk.”

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