17 November, 2005 - 4:39am

A new IDC study claims that over three-quarters of all corporate machines are compromised with various types of spyware. This can result in the capture of virtually all online activity and can lead to amongst other problems, identity theft, causing a threat to privacy and enterprise security.

IDC notes that hackers are also using keyloggers to steal users’ account information, log-in names, and passwords. With the information the hacker is then able to obtain a wealth of personal data, including bank details, and additional passwords. They believe this profit-driven motivation will cause attacks to increase in sophistication, frequency, and severity.

The report, "Worldwide Secure Content Management 2005-2009 Forecast Update and 2004 Vendor Shares: Spyware, Spam, and Malicious Code Continue to Wreak Havoc" also discusses the problem of phishing. IDC states that phishing attacks are now common occurrences for companies, particularly for large financial organizations and their customers. They predict that until authentication standards and new antiphishing solutions are widely adopted, phishing will continue to be a popular identity theft tactic.

IDC estimates that phishing schemes cost global financial institutions $400 million or more last year. They believe that more sophisticated attackers, often from organized crime, will increasingly use phishing techniques to obtain personal information to perpetrate identity theft. And with the number of phishing scams rocketing, IDC expects the sophistication and scale of online fraud and identity theft to continue rising at a rapid pace.