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 Actiance, Inc. (Formerly FaceTime Communications, Inc.)
FaceTime Communications became Actiance, Inc on January 11, 2011 following an agreement to
transfer the FaceTime trademark to Apple.
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of Unified Communications and Web 2.0,
including instant messaging, blogs and social networking. Ranked number one by IDC for five consecutive
years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 1,500 customers for the security,
management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships
with all leading IM, unified communications providers and social networks including AOL, Google, Yahoo!,
Skype, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-3223.
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