Energy and Oil industries most at risk of Web-delivered malware 
(12/11/2008)
ScanSafe's The Vertical Risk report reveals the top 5 industries at risk of Web-delivered malware as well as an analysis of the types and severity of the malware encountered.
ScanSafe analyzed Web malware blocks specific to 21 industry verticals throughout the first three quarters of 2008. The analysis was undertaken to determine whether certain industry verticals encounter more Web-delivered malware than others.
According to the latest ScanSafe research, the top 5 industries most at risk of Web-delivered malware are:
1. Energy & Oil – 156% heightened risk compared to other verticals
2. Pharmaceutical & Chemical – 152% heightened risk
3. Engineering & Construction – 116% heightened risk
4. Transportation & Shipping – 96% heightened risk
5. Travel & Leisure – 44% heightened risk
“We entered into this analysis with the broad assumption that Web malware exposure was likely related to user surfing habits,” comments Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at ScanSafe. “With that in mind, we fully expected to see research-intensive verticals such as Media & Publishing or Education move to the forefront of exposure risk. We were concerned to find that the industries consistently encountering the highest rate of Web-delivered malware are not typical industries, but rather industries that can have critical bearing on infrastructure and intellectual property rights.”
In addition to a higher risk of Web-malware exposure overall, Energy & Oil companies also encountered significantly more unique variants of password stealers and backdoors compared to other verticals.
“Given the sensitive nature of these industries and the serious risks posed by backdoors and password stealers, it is rather unnerving to see Energy & Oil positioned in the top three most at risk sectors.” continues Landesman.
The majority of encounters across all verticals were encounters with malicious iframes and malicious source references implanted on compromised websites. The most common exploits resulting from these encounters were exploits of vulnerabilities within Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader.
Related topics: Hacking and intrusion prevention Internet and Web security Virus, Worm, Email security, spyware and malware
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