Fortinet Reports of More Cyber Attacks During June 2009

Fortinet, an Internet security company, in its recent Threatscape Report for June 2009, said that the month was characterized with increased malicious programs and the highest number of phishing attacks on the Web.

Drawing a comparison with the company's May 2009 Threatscape Report, Fortinet stated that attacks during June 2009 kept on increasing. Of the total 108 security flaws freshly reported during the month, 62 represented active attack codes, suggesting the highest-ever rise of 57.4%.

Derek Manky, Project Manager of Cyber-Security and Threat Research, Fortinet, said that the June 2009 report showed some extremely significant trends like the rising popularity of malware on the Web that was pushing the G-Next e-threats towards Internet services, as reported by NetworkWorld on July 6, 2009.

Besides, online game websites hosted the maximum number of Trojans. Other malware following the game sites were the Zbot variants namely W32/Zbot.V and W32/Zbot.M that rose to third and second places respectively. Typically, the Zbot program distributes data-siphoning and keylogging trojans via greeting cards pushed through e-mails to divert users to malevolent websites.

Another frequently used malicious program diverting users to infected websites during June 2009 was the JS/PackRedir.A that climbed 36 places on the company's malware list to settle at the fifth place, Fortinet stated.

Further, majority of the total malware activities emanated from the USA that contributed 22% of the overall exploits. A considerable number of the assaults came from Asia, particularly Singapore, Japan and Korea that occupied the second, third and fourth positions respectively, with Singapore contributing 13.57% of the total attacks.

The June report also showed an increase in spam activity, with France, USA, Japan, Canada and Spain serially representing the five highest spam receiving countries.

Commenting on the trend of spam, security researchers at Fortinet stated that the spam levels remained the same during June 2009 although efforts were made to shutdown 3FN/Pricewert, a network suspected of spewing spam.

Concluding the discussion, Manky said hackers are still trying to attract bulk of traffic towards their threats with the help of different tactics, and consequently, users need to be more wary than ever-before regarding what and who they trust.

Related article: Fortinet Pinpoints Ten Biggest Threats

» SPAMfighter News - 7/17/2009