Web-based Threats Soared 63% in April 09

According to new statistics released by Network Box, the total number of threats from the Web sharply rose during April 2009, accounting for almost two-thirds of all malware.

The company also reveals that the increased number of Internet threats (63%) were largely due to phishing attacks that accounted for a ratio of 1:4 of the total threats. Accordingly, phishing attacks accounted for 24.6% of the total Internet threats.

Besides, computer viruses also grew during April 2009. The research finds that these viruses mainly originated from two countries - the United States that accounted for 14.99% and Korea -7.78% of all viruses. China ranked third with 5.89% of the total viruses.

Further, the US produced the largest amount of global spam, accounting for 13%, while Brazil slowly increased its contribution at around 7.1% of the total spam.

Commenting on the trend in future, Simon Heron, Internet Security Analyst at Network Box, said that while the current spring had seen a rise in the amount of malware, the number of attacks were also expected to keep on rising, as reported by vnunet on April 30, 2009.

Mr. Heron further said that the poor economic conditions of a country always resulted in higher amount of malware that mostly tried to defraud people off their money. According to him, massive uses of social media, with platforms having low security, also offered opportunities to hackers.

Furthermore, cyber criminals have a strong talent to adjust to upcoming vectors to upload content that would entice users, hungry for information, to make it active. This ability of cyber criminals has enabled them to convert deception into business models of full scale in the underground economy.

With security programs lacking in efficiency, organizations have encountered various security-related incidences ranging from computer intrusions, privacy breaches to data theft that call for enhanced security practices.

Hence, the security specialists state that it is extremely important to adopt all possible techniques for protection from Internet threats. Deploying up-to-date antivirus software and increasing knowledge of recent threats are the fundamental steps users need to adopt to prevent from becoming victims of cyber crime.

Related article: Web Browsers Too Have Security Exploits

» SPAMfighter News - 5/14/2009