IBM report reviews Internet crime

Wed Feb 13 20:36:22 UTC 2008

This should definitely be taken in context: this is a security report 
from the point of view IBM selling security systems to enterprise 
customers. It isn't necessarily the "state of the Internet" as a whole. 
To a large enterprise, getting a web page from "playboy.com" is a 
security problem even if it is a technically legitimate http transfer 
wanted by the end user. This is because it is a real danger of potential 
lawsuit to the employer. To the public at large (and the large ISP), it 
is not a Internet security problem. (Or, more accurately, opinion varies 
wildly from person to person.)

Not to nitpick: the report does not seem that statistically sound. Just 
an opinion. For example, the report attempts to show a trend by 
day-of-week, yet does not mention or seem to take into account the 
affect of human reporting behavior. ("aw, I'll report that on 
Monday..."). Nor does it adjust the source of spam for the population 
size with access in that region. (I guess it depends on the question 
being answered...) It does not adjust or make mention of the penetration 
rates of vendors vs. the number of vulnerabilities reported. 

However, having said all that, I'm glad IBM made the report anyway. It 
is an interesting read.

John

Scott Weeks wrote:
>
>
> These statements (and others in it) are very telling about the type of report this is:
>
> "...percent of Internet content was classified as unwanted..."
>
> "...hosting source of adult, socially deviant and criminal content on the Internet"
>
>
> take with a grain of salt...
>
> scott
>
>   