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FAST FACTS
C&RL News, July/August 2007
Vol. 68, No. 7
by Gary Pattillo
Google: 10 percent of sites are dangerous
A new Google report researching 4.5 million Web sites found that about one in ten Web pages could successfully “drive-by download” a Trojan horse virus onto a visitor’s computer. The primary mechanisms by which the malware is transferred are Web server security, user contributed content, advertising, and third-party widgets.Neils Provos, et al., Google Inc. The Ghost in the Browser: Analysis of Web-based Malware. April 10, 2007. www.usenix.org/events/hotbots07/tech/full_papers/provos/provos.pdf. May 31, 2007
Typology of techies
Half of all American adults are only occasional users of modern information gadgetry. Only 8 percent of Americans are “deep” users of the participatory Web and mobile applications. Fifteen percent of the adult U.S. population are off the Web/cell phone network altogether.
John Horrigan, “A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users,” May 7, 2007 Pew Internet & American Life Project, www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_ICT_Typology.pdf. May 29, 2007
LibSite
LibSite.org is a new recommendation service for library-related Web sites. The goal is “to show-case and otherwise promote what libraries and librarians are doing online.” Information can be presented and rearranged as well as rated and tagged. The interactive site is user-generated and includes a blog and a wiki.
libsite.org/. April 10, 2007
Compromised personal records
In the United States, approximately 1.9 billion online personal records have been exposed, either through poor management or hacker intrusions. This amounts to about nine personal digital records compromised for every adult. There were more reported incidents in 2005 and 2006 than in the previous 25 years combined, and while businesses have been the primary organizations leaking personal records, colleges and universities are increasingly implicated. Organizational mismanagement accounts for 60 percent of the incidents involved, while hackers accounted for 31 percent of incidents.
World Information Access Project, “6 Million Personal Records Compromised Each Month; 2 Billion in Total by December?” March 12, 2007, www.wiareport.org/index.php/43/6-million-personal-records-compromised-each-month-2-billion-in-total-by-december. June 1, 2007
U.S. postsecondary institutions
Considering all degree-granting institutions in the United States, 29 percent offered an associate’s degree as their highest degree, 17 percent offered a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree, 20 percent offered a master’s degree as their highest degree, and 16 percent offered a doctor’s degree as their highest degree. For the 2004–05 academic year, about 2.3 million degrees were awarded by four-year Title IV institutions and about 557,000 were awarded by two-year institutions.
L. G. Knapp, J. E. Kelly-Reid, R. W. Whitmore, and E. Miller (2006). Postsecondary Institutions in the United States: Fall 2005 and Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2004–05 (NCES 2007-167). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, nces.ed.gov/pubsearch. February 15, 2007
Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@refstaff.lib.unc.edu
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