Cisco Cisco Web Security Appliance S360 White Paper

 

 

© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. 

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White Paper 

Cisco Web Security 

 

Web technology provides innovative ways to market products, reach customers and 
suppliers, and reduce the cost of doing business. Unfortunately, many of these 
technologies contain security threats that can expose companies to significant 
business risks. 

More Exposure, New Threats 

Today, some of the most sophisticated web-based threats are designed to hide in plain sight on legitimate and 

well-trafficked websites. 

● 

Online advertisements are now 182 times more likely to deliver malicious content than pornographic sites

1

. 

● 

Studies of traffic patterns show that criminal activity mirrors the “9 to 5” workday of its victims. 

● 

The majority (83%) of web malware encounters in 2012 were malicious scripts and hidden iFrames - attacks 

representing mali

cious code on “trusted” webpages that users visit every day

2

. 

Ubiquitous web access creates new network entry points that blur the lines of historically segmented security 

layers. Employees once checked text-based email from workstations behind company firewalls, but today they 

interact with rich HTML messages from multiple devices, anytime and anywhere. Sophisticated blended email and 

web attacks capitalize on this vulnerability. 

Once an organization’s network is compromised, it can take weeks, months, or longer for an advanced persistent 

threat (APT) enabled through web malware to be detected in the network. Meanwhile, the targeted organization 

continues to lose data - and risks significant financial and reputation damage. 

                                                 

1

 2013 Cisco Annual Security Report, January 2013, available for download at 

. 

2

 2013 Cisco Annual Security Report, January 2013, available for download at 

.