Microsoft today released its biannual Security Intelligence Report which demonstrates some surprising conclusions about how the threat landscape is impacting enterprise networks. For example, the number of rogue security software infections, which experienced a high-profile scourge earlier this year, was down, as was the number of Trojan and downloader infections. Computer worm infections, on the other hand, surged upward. Read the full story [SearchSecurity.com].

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It turns out Nigeria is taking measures to fight Internet scams—law enforcement there has shut down close to a thousand websites and made 18 arrests as part of a new initiative to save the nation's reputation and crack down on Internet scammers. The program, called "Project Eagle Claw," has only just begun, but Nigerian officials expect it to be fully operational in 2010. Read the full story [Ars Technica].

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President Barack Obama discusses the pressing security issues facing the country, and the steps needed to address them as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

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Since moving to a monthly schedule in October 2003, Microsoft has released about 400 security bulletins based on an informal count of releases in its bulletin archives. The bulletins address about 745 vulnerabilities across almost every Microsoft product.

About 230, or more than half of the bulletins, addressed security vulnerabilities that were described by Microsoft as "critical." This definition is what Microsoft typically uses for vulnerabilities that allow attackers to take full administrative control of a system from a remote location. Read the full story [Jaikumar Vijayan/Computerworld]

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Just 4% of users of corporate systems abide by IT security policies, even when that system handles very sensitive private information according to an academic survey [pdf] that has revealed humans to be the main flaw in any security system.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and  IT University, Copenhagen found that just 4% of the people surveyed obey best practice rules for passwords. The rest use the same passwords for different systems or use words that appear in the dictionary or write their passwords down on post-it notes beside the computer.  Read the full story [out-law.com]

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