The IMlogic Threat Center, a global consortium to provide threat detection and protection for instant messaging (IM), today announced that monthly IM security threats in October 2005 increased more than 1,500 percent over October 2004, and more than 30 percent compared to September 2005.
In addition to their growth in numbers, the IM-borne worms have also evolved to become more malicious and destructive, said Waltham, Mass.-based IMlogic, a company that makes enterprise software for IM.
"More than 60 percent of the worms identified in the month of October delivered malware capable of disabling existing desktop security software, operating without end-user knowledge, and undermining traditional anti-virus detection and protection capabilities," the company noted.
According to IMlogic, this monthly report reinforces the findings of the IMlogic Threat Center Q3 2005 report, which detailed a more than 2,000 percent increase in reported attacks during the first nine months of the year. So far in 2005, each successive quarter has shown a marked increase in IM threats, the company noted.
"The alarming prospect of IM threats that disable virus protection software is a wake-up call to enterprises to put additional protection in place for defense-in-depth," said IMlogic Chief Technology Officer Jon Sakoda. "The significant rise in IM virus and worm activity coupled with the development of increasingly sophisticated IM threats requires organizations to adopt a comprehensive security strategy for IM and real-time applications."
More information is available at the IMlogic Threat Center Web site at: http://www.imlogic.com/im_threat_center/index.asp.
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