Internet security specialist Symantec has warned that the number of Web-based attacks jumped a whopping 93 per cent from 2009 to 2010.

The 2010 edition of Symantec’s annual Internet Security Threat Report also warns that sites containing porn is the most likely source of malware. The report claims that pornographic sites account for 49 per cent of all malicious websites.

The report depicts the deteriorating condition of Web security. Last year, a total of 6,253 software vulnerabilities were reported. The figure is higher than in any preceding year. Fourteen software vulnerabilities were used in zero-day attacks. Infamous Stuxnet attack used 4 of these Windows zero-days.

As far as data breaches are concerned, as many as 61,000 identities were compromised in 2010.

A similar report from McAfee claims that cyber criminals shifted their attention from individual bank accounts to information of big businesses and nation states.

Speaking on the issue, McAfee vice president Simon Hunt, “Cyber criminals understand there is greater value in selling a corporations’ proprietary information and trade secrets which have little to no protection making intellectual capital their new currency of choice.”

Cyber criminal are widely using social networks to spread malicious links.