70 per cent of websites open to attack

Seven in ten websites are at immediate risk of being hacked, according to web-security firm Acunetix.

The company used its automated software to scan 3,200 business and non-commercial websites over one year for free. Seventy per cent of them were then labelled as containing high or medium-risk vulnerabilities.

The findings reveal that of all the websites tested, an average of 66 holes per website were found, ranging from serious SQL injection and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities to minor weaknesses such as directory listings being exposed.

In its statement Acunetix said: "Fifty percent of the websites with instances of high vulnerabilities were susceptible to SQL injection, while 42 per cent of these websites were prone to cross-site scripting."

From the data, the company concluded: "There is an extremely high probability of these vulnerabilities being discovered and manipulated by hackers to steal the sensitive data these organisations store."

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