New malware is growing exponentially, says Security company PandaLabs.
In the second quarter of 2015 alone, PandaLabs saw an average of 230 000 new types each day and a total of 21 million new threats during these three months. This represents a 43% increase in comparison to the second quarter of 2014.
According to the PandaLabs Q2 2015 report, a large number of the new types are variants or mutations of previously known malware, and cyber-criminals are multiplying the types of malware to evade detection by the antivirus laboratories.
The report revealed that Trojans remain the most common type of malware and accounted for 76.25% of users infected. In addition, PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) are on the rise, accounting for 14.39% of infections.
Jeremy Matthews, country manager for PandaLabs, says the company has also seen a dramatic increase in ransomware over the last few months. "What users don't realise is that these kinds of attacks will continue to grow, as long as companies and consumers succumb to paying the ransom - this should be a last resort."
According to Matthews, ransomware was one of the top threats infecting businesses and personal users alike. Although this sort of scourge has been in business for 20 years, it has grown in popularity recently, alongside the rise in anonymous means of making payments and transferring money.
"Ransomware has become cyber-criminals' preferred method to make money from companies' stolen information," says Matthews.
Attacks on mobile devices also increased this quarter, says the report, with not only an increase in malware for the mobile platform, but more and more ransomware being developed for the Android platform.
In addition, a phishing campaign aimed at Android developers was uncovered in June this year. The campaign stole developers' password information in order to spread malware on the Google Play store.
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