Breach.com Releases Bi-Annual Web Hacking Report

REPORT SUMMARY FINDING

An analysis of recent web hacking incidents performed by Breach Security Labs shows that Web 2.0 sites are becoming a premier target for hackers. Based on analysis of recent ‘web hacking incidents of importance,’ Breach Security Labs found that:

• The first half of 2009 showed a steep rise in attacks against Web 2.0 sites. This is the most targeted vertical market with 19% of the incidents.

• Organizations have not implemented proper web application logging mechanisms and thus are unable to conduct proper incident response to identify and correct vulnerabilities. This resulted in the number 2 “Unknown” attack category.

• Attack vectors exploiting Web 2.0 features such as user-contributed content were commonly employed: Authentication abuse was the 2nd most active attack vector, accounting for 11% of the attacks, and Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) rose to number 5 with 5% of the reported attacks.

• Defacements, which combined both Planting of Malware and standard overt changes, remains the most common outcome of web attacks (28%), while Leakage of sensitive information came in 2nd with 26% and Disinformation came in 3rd with 19%, mostly due to the hacking of celebrity online identities.

ABOUT THE WEB HACKING INCIDENTS DATABASE

The web hacking incident database (WHID) is a project dedicated to maintaining a list of web application-related security incidents.

The WHID’s purpose is to serve as a tool for raising awareness of the web application security problem and provide information for statistical analysis of web application security incidents.

Unlike other resources covering website security, which focus on the technical aspect of the incident, the WHID focuses on the impact of the attack. To be included in WHID an incident must be publicly reported, be associated with web application security vulnerabilities and have an identified outcome.

Breach Security Labs (http://www.breach.com/resources/breach-security-labs/) is a WHID project contributor.

For further information about the Web Hacking Incidents Database refer to http://www.xiom.com/whid-about.