Symantec has released its annual Internet Security Threat Report. Its coverage of Internet attacks, vulnerabilities, malware, phishing, spam, and trend in the Internet security area is a must read for security and legal professionals. Here are some of the highlights.

Phishing, Spam, and Security Risks

• The Symantec Probe Network detected 157,477 unique phishing messages, an increase of 81%.
• Financial services was the most heavily phished sector, accounting for 84% of phishing activity.
• Spam made up 54% of all monitored email traffic, up from 50% in the last period.
• The most common type of spam detected in the first six months of 2006 was related to health services and products.
• Fifty-eight percent of all spam detected worldwide originated in the United States
• Eight of the top ten reported security risks were adware programs.
• Three of the top ten new security risks are what Symantec calls “misleading applications.

Attack Trend Highlights

• Microsoft Internet Explorer was the most frequently targeted Web browser, accounting for 47% of all Web browser attacks.
• Symantec observed an average of 6,110 DoS attacks per day.
• The United States was the target of the most DoS attacks, accounting for 54% of the worldwide total.
• The Internet service provider (ISP) sector was the most frequently targeted by DoS attacks.
• China had the highest number of bot-infected computers during the first half of 2006, accounting for 20% of the worldwide total.
• The United States had the highest percentage of bot command-and-control servers with 42%.
• Beijing was the city with the most bot-infected computers in the world.
• The United States ranked as the top country of attack origin, accounting for 37% of the worldwide total.
• The home user sector was the most highly targeted sector, accounting for 86% of all targeted attacks.

Read the full report (120 pages).