Malware reaches record levels

By Staff Writer for Symantec
Johannesburg, 16 Apr 2009

Symantec's Internet security threat report (ISTR) reveals that 90% of all malicious threats detected last year stem from cyber criminals looking to steal users' confidential information for financial gain.

Stephen Trilling, vice-president of security technology and response, Symantec, says malicious code is growing at a record pace: “Cyber criminals are profiting from creating and distributing customised threats that steal confidential information, particularly bank account credentials and credit card data. While the above ground economy suffers, the underground economy has remained consistently steady.”

A criminal Web

Last year, Symantec developed more than 1.6 million new malicious code signatures, more than 60% of the total malicious code signatures ever created by the security giant. Symantec has blocked, on average, more than 245 million attempted malicious code attacks across the globe each month during the past year.

Of all the vulnerabilities identified in 2008, 63% affected Web applications, up from 59% in 2007. Of the 12 885 site-specific cross-site scripting vulnerabilities reported in 2008, only 3% (394) had been fixed at the time the report was written.

The report also found that Web-based attacks originated from countries around the globe, with the most originating from the US (38%), followed by China (13%) and the Ukraine (12%).

Six of the top 10 countries where Web-based attacks were prominent were from the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region - these countries accounted for 45% of the worldwide total, more than any other region.

In a Symantec Europe, Middle East and Africa security threat report, published this month, the most common method to distribute malicious code is through executable files. Last year saw 65% of potential infections in the EMEA region, which, Symantec says, is a substantial increase from 37% in 2007.