Apparently he was quite successful at startling results to the fore. About a third of them can be broken into with almost no effort at all. Presumably, more knew of the attack, but this is a very small response that indicates that the likelihood is that few of the attacked hosts realized they had been scanned or attacked. Farmer categorized host vulnerabilities as red or yellow . He defined red vulnerabilities to be those that make the site essentially wide open to any potential attacker due to known security problems that can be easily exploited.
Yellow vulnerabilities are less vulnerable, but still of great concern.
Conclusions Whether you are a Farmer fan or detractor, it is undeniable that this survey presents important information regarding the state of Internet security. It reminds us that, as users, we must beware of what we type into our browsers and what we send across the Internet. Type at your peril, but keep an eye on the lock or key icon and do not send anything sensitive to sites that do not support secure transmission protocols. Sending information across an open link means that your message may travel through multiple hosts with red vulnerabilities, and can be read of modified anywhere along the line. It should also remind organizations with Internet connectivity that they must beware of their own vulnerabilities.