Port Scanning: Do Hackers Look Before They Leap?

[Kristijntje]

Port scanning, the act of sweeping computer ports to discover which port is open, has long been assumed to be a principal first step of any hacker.

But that may not necessarily be the case, according to a new report from researchers at the University of Maryland (UM).

In UM's test environment, port scans preceded attacks in only 5 percent of cases. The report also found that more than half of all attacks are not actually predicated by any type of scan. "Hackers don't necessarily look before they leap," the study concludes...

Though port scanning was not a predictor for attacks, vulnerability scans do in fact lead to attacks in a significant percentage of cases....

full article: http://www.internetnews.com/security/art...hp/3570001