Akonix Reports 62 IM-Based Worm Attacks in November

Akonix Systems has reported 62 IM-based worm attacks in the month of November. There is a 226% increase over the previous month.

Akonix Systems has reported that they have tracked 62 IM-based worm attacks in the month of November.

36% of the IM attacks affected more than one public network. 13% of the IM attacks were able to affect all the major IM networks.

Major findings by Akonix were:

“The number of IM attacks from October 2005 to November 2005 increased by 226%

58 worms were variants of previous worms, while four new worms were introduced during November.

The Akonix Security Center issued 17 SPIM and malware filter updates in November, an 42% increase over last month.

P2P attacks decreased by 36% from October 2005 to November 2005.” [Source]

Don Montgomery, VP of Marketing, Akonix Systems, said, “November marked the highest number of IM threats that we have ever seen to date, proving that hackers see this real-time communications medium as a wide-open security hole in corporate networks.

With nearly 50 new attacks this month alone, it’s critical that organizations take immediate action to protect their networks. Beyond the loss of employee productivity, the price to clean up a virus is shocking with some reports estimating the remediation cost of the Blaster virus at nearly half a million dollars per enterprise.” [Source]