IBM Internet Security Systems has noted a disturbing rise in the sophistication of attacks by criminals on Web browsers worldwide. By attacking the browsers of computer users, cybercriminals are now stealing the identities and controlling the computers of consumers at a rate never before seen on the Internet.

Underground brokers are delivering tools to aid in obfuscation, or camouflaging attacks on browsers, so cybercriminals can avoid detection by security software. In 2006, only a small percentage of attackers employed camouflaging techniques, but the rate of attacks using such camouflage tactics soared to 80 percent during the first half of 2007, and reached nearly 100 percent by the end of the year.

These and other trends were reported by the IBM Internet Security Systems X-Force team in their 2007 Trends Report. Download the report here.