ATLANTA -- Exploit Prevention Labs (http://www.explabs.com), a leading developer of safe surfing software that protects against phishing,

social engineering and other web-based exploits, today released the results of its December 2006 Exploit Prevalence SurveyT. Now in its eighth month, the Exploit Prevalence Survey is the industry's only survey to use real-world data to definitively measure the most widespread web-borne exploits. Results are derived from automated reports submitted by users of Exploit Prevention Labs' LinkScanner family of

safe surfing applications, combined with data collected from all levels of the company's multi-faceted research network.

Roger Thompson, CTO of Exploit Prevention Labs and author of the monthly Exploit Prevalence Survey, noted increased activity among cybercriminals in December. Thompson has dubbed this month's most common package, accounting for more than 70% of all reports, the "Q406 Roll-up" package, as it consists largely of updated versions of exploits issued during the fourth quarter of 2006.

"The dominance of this package reinforces the fact that the development and release of exploits frequently parallels legitimate software businesses," noted Thompson. "The bad guys are working hard to update and release tweaks to existing exploits at least in part because developing a new exploit is a complex development task."

Exploit Prevention Labs