Fraudsters are using online games, unsecured file sharing and removable disk drives to steal personal information from local computer users, according to Microsoft's seventh Security Intelligence Report.
The security report shows a massive spike in worm infections in the enterprise, which rose by nearly 100% in the first half of this year, compared to the previous six months.
According to Microsoft, malware accounts for 81.1% of all threats detected on infected computers in SA in the first half of 2009. Of this, worms accounted for 32.2% of threat families detected on infected computers.
However, Microsoft security expert Desmond Nair says SA's infection rates are dropping, and the country now ranks significantly lower than the global average for infections.
He adds that the threat landscape continues to evolve, with attacks becoming more sophisticated and geographically diverse. “Attackers are more aggressive in their tactics and often blend past malicious threats with new, smarter methods of distribution and infiltration,” explains Nair.
He adds: “This presents a challenge for customers, be it IT professionals or business decision-makers, as many of yesterday's solutions for mitigating attacks are no longer relevant. While in the past simply installing up-to-date anti-virus software prevented against malicious attacks, the stealthier tactics of cyber criminals are forcing people to re-evaluate security protections.”
Aggressive worms
The single biggest threat in SA, and number two worldwide, according to Microsoft, is Taterf - a family of worms that spreads through mapped drives to steal login and account details for popular online games.
The second-biggest threat is Frethog - a large family of password-stealing Trojans that targets confidential data, such as account information, from massive multiplayer online games.
Steven Ambrose, of local research firm World Wide Worx, says: “As South African Internet penetration grows from 5.9 million users in 2009 to 8.9 million in 2013, per our research, the problem of computer security will continue to grow exponentially.
“The sophistication of hackers looking to target computer users will track this growth and result in greater risks. The use of precautions in the form of security software, and keeping users' computers fully updated, will become critical.”
Ten years after macro-virus Melissa appeared and defined mass mailing worms as a class of malicious threats, worm infections have resurged again to become the second most prevalent threat for enterprises in the first half of 2009.
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