Join Symantec security experts on Twitter (using the #ISTR hashtag) on Tuesday, May 15, at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET to chat about the key trends highlighted in Symantec’s recently released Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 17.

This year’s report, which covers the major threat trends observed by Symantec in 2011, highlights several troubling developments. For example:

• Symantec blocked more than 5.5 billion malicious attacks in 2011, an increase of 81 percent over the previous year.
• The number of unique malware variants increased to 403 million and the number of Web attacks blocked per day increased by 36 percent.
• Targeted attacks are growing, with the number of daily targeted attacks increasing from 77 per day to 82 per day by the end of 2011. The targets of these attacks are also becoming more diverse, with SMBs being targeted in addition to large enterprises.

(Cross-posted from Symantec Connect)

I believe that we have reached a saturation point.  You know how, after heavy rain, the ground can’t absorb any more water and it begins to pool on the ground? We’ve reached that point with security incidents.

The bad guys just can’t pump out new malware any faster. Check out the Norton Cybercrime Index.  The trends for 2011 are pretty much flat. The explosive growth in malware we’ve seen in the previous 10 years is just not sustainable. Maybe new hacker tools will come along, new propagation methods, or more platforms, or more people to infect.  But for now, things are beginning to stagnate.

This is not to say the problem is going away.  There were 286M new malware variants in 2010. 286 million! But even that mind-blowing number reflect a slow down.  It’s more than the year before, but not the 100% increase we’ve reported in previous years.  It’s not like the growth we use to see.

The year 1991 was an important year for the Internet. In August 1991 came the announcement of the World Wide Web project, which has changed the face of our world forever. Another event that year,though less publicized, has had an equally important impact online: the release of the first PGP software.

Even back in the days of Usenet, many people were concerned about privacy and whether the government would have ultimate control over information in the digital age. In an effort to give individuals the right to control their own data, Phil Zimmermann developed PGP and released the first version, to rave reviews. Soon engineers around the world were clamoring to port the software to different platforms, and Zimmermann began to see his project take on a life of its own. In many ways, the privacy we enjoy today online is a direct result of PGP and the power it gives each user to control his online privacy.