Press Release
FaceTime Reports 279 IM and P2P Threats for Third Quarter 2007
Cyclical Trend Continues with Expectation of Increased Threats for Fall/Winter
BELMONT, CALIF. - September 27, 2007 - FaceTime Communications, the
leading provider of solutions that control greynets and manage Unified
Communications in the enterprise, today announced initial results of its
quarterly IMPact Report, showing a steady state of security incidents targeting
public IM and P2P channels, according to FaceTime researchers. The company's
Third Quarter IMPact Report will be issued on October 1, 2007.
As predicted, security incidents on these channels declined somewhat during the
summer months, dropping slightly from 317 reported incidents in Q2, 2007 to an
estimated 279 by end of Q3, 2007. This represents a 12 percent drop in
quarter-on-quarter incidents, and follows a cyclical pattern noted by FaceTime
researchers earlier this year in which attacks decline in the summer period
followed by an upswing in the fall/winter months. The research team cautioned
IT Managers and organizations toward continued vigilance over IM channels
during the coming months. FaceTime researchers expect a total of 897 incidents
year-to-date for the end of Q3 2007.
Attacks spread by the mainstream networks (AOL, MSN and Yahoo) continue to
decline from a high of 74 attacks in Q1 to 64 in Q2 and now 53 in Q3 (as of
Sept 24). Most of the decline in incidents is on the AOL and Yahoo networks;
attacks disseminated on the MSN network have stayed at the same levels
year-to-date. As a result, MSN's share of public-network attacks has increased
from 38 percent in Q1 to 72 percent in Q3 of 2007. During this same period,
AOL's share of public-network attacks has dropped from 38 percent to eight
percent. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) accounted for a large share of reported
incidents via all channels, followed by P2P.
In addition, the rise in single-channel attacks which were dominant and growing
in share for the preceding six quarters has subsided. Single channel attacks
have dropped from a high of 72 percent of all attacks in August to an estimated
57 percent for September.
During this most recent quarter, FaceTime researchers identified and reported
on numerous incidents. The recent JT.Moonwalk worm, for example, was born from
a botnet that had been seemingly inactive. The worm propagated through MSN
Messenger buddy lists with fake messages such as "Look at me doing the
moonwalk!!" and "Look what I found, more nude pictures of Justin Timberlake!"
A variant of the Bubbles Worm spread through Skype contacts in mid-September,
targeting teenagers that play Runescape with a keylogger to track everything a
user does on the PC. The user of key loggers is a primary means of identity
theft. Details for these and other malware threats discovered by the FaceTime
research team can be found on the www.SpywareGuide.com web site.
"Our researchers have a deep understanding of the methods and patterns of IM
and P2P threats," said Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing and product
management for FaceTime Communications. "This combination of qualitative and
quantitative research means we can provide a better understanding of the threat
landscape for IT administrators who must protect their organizations from the
continued risks of malware infection through the use of real-time
communications by their employees - whether detected by IT or not - on every
corporate network."
To find the most current and up-to-date threat information, or to view a copy
of the report, visit FaceTime Security Labs at:
http://www.facetime.com/securitylabs/impactreport.aspx.
About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of instant
messaging, Web usage and Unified Communications platforms. Ranked number one by
IDC for four consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by
more than 900 customers - including nine of the ten largest U.S. banks - for
security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime
supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and enterprise
IM network providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM and Jabber.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE. The FaceForward blog, at
http://blog.facetime.com, offers thoughts and opinions about the changing
nature of Internet communications.
PR Contact:
Joshua Barnes
A&R Edelman
650-762-2865
joshua.barnes@ar-edelman.com
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