In its report, Whitehat credits the steady drop in web vulnerabilities to a combination of factors: An increase in regulatory compliance, clients and business partners who increasingly enforce security standards on companies, community awareness campaigns, and an increase in cybercrime that has pressured firms to secure themselves.

FORBES: Researchers Say The Web May Be Offering Fewer Footholds To Hackers

Web application vulnerabilities are discovered and used to compromise legitimate websites and force them to serve malware to selected visitors.

FORBES: To Stop Cybercrime: Understand Crime Logic, And Adapt

Attackers used booby-trapped web pages, vulnerabilities in popular applications, social engineering and many other tactics to gain access.

BBC: State-backed data spies hunt industrial secrets