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OVERVIEW NetSTAR is the global leader in OEM URL/Web Categorization, Filtering, and Security technology. With over 800,000,000 globally disbursed endpoints, it’s industry leading Backend Content Categorization Engine (BaCCE), and unique visibility to the internet, NetSTAR provides a quarterly report on trends that it is seeing.
Google is still the gorilla in the room More Internet traffic goes to google.com than any other site. Facebook is the top social media site. Amazon the top online shopping site. YouTube is the top streaming media site. Three
of the top 10 sites (Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Live.com) are email related sites.
Web-based Malware is a significant threat There is no denying it, as the web continues to grow, so do the risks. Some of the trends include:
• 16.8% increase in phishing sites from Q4 compared to Q3; more than a 200% growth compared to 2013.
• 178% increase in malware related URLs compared to 2013.
• Only 65% of web-‐based malware are identified by traditional technologies in the first week.
• Malicious URLs represent 76% of all malware.
• Verisign is reporting that DDoS attacks continue to increase in frequency, complexity, and volume.
Mobile Ads are leading online advertising growth NetSTAR has seen a 16%
year-‐to-‐year growth rate in online advertising. 64% of that year-‐to-‐year growth can be attributed to mobile advertising; both in mobile content as well as mobile apps. This is a significant change over 2013, when mobile advertising represented less than 25% of the total online advertising growth.
A Global View of the Internet The number of internet users in the APAC region continues to increase significantly; representing over 45% of the internet users in total. Most of
the growth is coming from China and Malaysia. African internet users continue to also demonstrate significant growth, but only about 25% of the population has internet access. Web-‐based malware is still concentrated most heavily in North America and Russia. Between these two countries, nearly 40% of web-‐based malware is distributed. In comparison, Russia represents nearly 50% of mobile app treats with North America representing less than 1%. Globally, social media (including micro-‐blogging) is the most popular use of the Internet, besides email and search engines. Streaming media is one the rise.
Its all about being social, and on the go. In the 4th quarter of 2013, tablets and smartphones represented less than
35% of the social media traffic. During the 4th quarter of 2014 over 55% of the social media traffic came from mobile devices (tablets and smartphones). 4% of the traffic came from non-‐traditional computing devices like televisions and gaming devices. In addition, mobile social media continues to be a significant driver of both paid and organic searching.
The Internet is Growing, and shrinking. Over 110,000 domains are being added daily. A staggering number no
matter how you look at it. However, nearly 65,000 domains are deleted on a daily basis; producing a net gain of about 45,000 domains per day. In their own research, IDC (a leading analyst firm) suggests that over 30,000 URLs are registered daily for pornography sites alone.
Cyber Terrorism isn’t the only terroristic activity on the internet. 2014 proved to be a major year for terrorist activities on the Internet. Specifically there was a major increase
in cyber terrorism as well as the use of social media to promote terrorist groups agendas. In a high profile story, a relatively simple DDoS attack brought Sony’s PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network to a complete stop. While there was no known data breach, the attack had a significant impact on Sony’s business. Such campaigns are on the rise worldwide with estimates of over 400% increase over 2013. Data breaches also continue to be on the rise with targets including home users, major retailers (both brick and mortar as well as online), healthcare, and government organizations being the top targets. However, perhaps the most interesting trend noted by NetSTAR was the increase of using social media and micro-‐blogging as a platform for terrorist groups and hackers alike. There was a 300+% increase in the use of social media by groups like ISIS/ISL, and others, to publicize their efforts.
Headquarters
Global Headquarters Ebisu East 438 Bldg. 6F 4-3-8 Ebisu Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0013 Japan Tele: +81-3-5795-4830 USA Office
San Mateo, California 94404 Tele: +1-650-277-3870
UK Office London, England EC1V 4PY Tele: +44 11 8315-0243
NetSTAR and ALSI GROUP publish the inCompass State-‐of-‐the-‐Web Report on a regular basis. Data is compiled from the analysis of billions of URL transactions per day. The inCompass URL Categorization, Filtering, and Security technology is used by over 150 of the leading security, online advertising, online market analysis, and big data companies as well as service providers and mobile operators. As result, the data includes information from desktop, notebook, mobile devices, “internet of things” (IoT) devices, and from service providers and mobile operators. Third-‐party sources include Verisign, Alexa, Daily Changes, IDC, and Sophos. All rights reserved by these respective companies.