22,000 New Malware Samples Detected Everyday During 2008

Security experts at PandaLabs said that the increasing number of malware samples and the new attacks detected by security researchers in 2008 surpassed even the last year predications.

During 2008, PandaLabs detected an average of 35,000 malware samples daily, out of which, 22,000 were new. At the end of 2008, the overall number of malware threats discovered by the company crossed 15 Million. Also, this amount surpassed the initial estimations by almost 5 Million. The firm further disclosed that as compare to previous 17 years (since 1991), it found more malware in the first 8 months of 2008 (January-August).

Majority of new malware (67.7%) was categorized as Trojans. They were made to steal private details like passwords, bank accounts and so on.

Chief Corporate Evangelist for Panda Security, Ryan Sherstobitoff, said online users often ignore the threats emerging from harmful software. As a result, many times, they do not take any security initiative to protect their systems. The truth is that malware has expanded tremendously in the last few years, and this false sense of protection enables hackers to attacks more computers without being found, as reported by PRNewswire on January 8, 2009.

The company also revealed that trojans were found to be the most common malware infection with 70.1% of total detections. trojans were followed by adware with 19.9% and worms with 4.22%. These three kinds of malware together accounted for the majority of malware found during 2008, estimated 94%.

With reference to the threats that increased rapidly during 2008, PandaLabs pointed to the rapid emergence of fake antivirus programs. The findings of PandaLabs revealed that the fraudulent antivirus software cost around $70.00, and together produced $13.65 Million per month for their creators.

In addition, the company claimed that banker trojans were another most popular form of attack. Ryan added that the proliferation of toolkits for malware creation facilitated the trend. He also said that for hackers, it is simple to acquire these harmful programs as the market is flooded with the custom designed Trojan creation kits, as reported by SexurityWatch on January 9, 2009.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 20-01-2009

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