China Received Twofold Malware Attacks in April over March 2009

Security provider Fortinet, on May 5, 2009, announced the results of its Threatscape Report for April 2009, according to which, China experienced a twofold increase in the number of malware assaults during April 2009 against March 2009. Moreover, China surged ahead of the US and Japan with a 44.86% share in global malware during April 2009 compared to the 24.17% share during March 2009.

Furthermore, according to the report, the profitable marketplace on account of Internet gaming is a major attraction for online criminals especially in China.

Meanwhile, Derek Manky, Project Manager of Cyber Security and Threat Research at Fortinet, said that in April, cyber criminals were predominantly busy in releasing highly hostile malware attacks that had not been occurred in 2009, as reported by ComputerWorld on May 5, 2009.

Manky added that as per expectations, the rising trend of the malware attacks would survive as gaming assaults would keep dominating, particularly with Real Money Trading turning into a large business, with an annual estimated market of $2 Billion.

Moreover, Fortinet's report states that there were four new variants of malware in the Top Ten Malware list for April 2009, with three trojans related to online gaming. W32/Virut.A claimed the first position during April 2009 just as in March 2009. These malware samples together were responsible for a considerable amount of malware activity detected in April.

Besides, an extremely prevalent malware family, Waledac, launched its 5th campaign in April 2009 ever since the year started. This virus has multiple functions and is capable of sending tailored spam templates, downloading malware and causing 'denial-of-service' conditions. Earlier, it was even detected on Conficker-infected computers with the virus getting included within Conficker's own different scams that aided it in accruing further force.

Meanwhile, another important threat of April 2009 was a fraudulent e-mail purporting to be from Men's Health magazine. The e-mail displayed links that redirected to the Canadian Pharmacy gang instead of Men's Health.

The security specialists state that the e-mail is still another phishing campaign that tries to exploit a name of repute, therefore requiring users to exercise caution.

Related article: China’s Best Initiatives To Deal With Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 5/9/2009