Botnets: The Biggest Threat to Enterprise Security — Quick Take

Malware-infected devices on an enterprise network can wreak havoc.

The worst thing that can happen to a company in terms of IT security is getting hijacked by botnets. Botnets are networked, compromised computers connected the Internet that do the bidding of malware proprietors, and they have been a thorn in the side of the security industry for some time. Microsoft even offered a $250,000 reward for information on the Rustock botnet creators.

If the big guys in business are worried about botnets, SMBs definitely have reason to fear. According to research from ZScaler’s ThreatLabZ, 80 percent of the security threats seen in the businesses in their network were the result of botnets, reports ThreatPost. The remaining 20 percent?

In a distant second place among security blocks, malicious URLs accounted for almost 15 percent, and in a somewhat less distant third place, antivirus accounted for just fewer than four per cent of blocks. Rounding off the list was cookie stealing (1.02 per cent), phishing (.21 per cent), browser exploits (.1 per cent), adware/spyware (.08 per cent), WRI (.02 per cent), and Anonymizers (.02).

Read more about the malware woes of SMBs in the full post from ThreatPost.

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