AV Vendors Lag Behind Criminals, Says Cyveillance

Cyber security firm Cyveillance has released its "1H-2009 Cyber Intelligence Report" in the third week of August 2009. The security firm's testing has showed that over half of the phishing threats and active malware on the Internet remain undetected, with phishing threats having a detection rate of 44% on an average and malware attacks, at 29%.

It is clear from the abovementioned figures that majority of traditional anti-virus (AV) programs and web browser anti-phishing filters are still far behind the cyber crooks as far as identifying and securing users against new and rapidly evolving Internet threats is concerned. In simple words, it may be said that the cyber criminals are far ahead of the Internet security vendors.

Panos Anastassiadis, CEO and President, Cyveillance, commented that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the AV engines to keep up the pace with the emergence of more sophisticated online attacks as well as with social networking websites being increasingly targeted. The AV engines failed to perform as per the expectations, particularly within the initial 24-hr period when most of the damage occurs, reported the greensheet.com on August 19, 2009.

As a result, organizations should adopt a blend of feasible and efficient security measures in order to remain ahead of the dynamically changing online threats of the present day, said Anastassiadis.

Another important discovery made by Cyveillance in H1-2009 tracked an Internet "fraud-chain" including malware components which store as well as serve malicious codes, distribute malware to users and accumulate confidential information gathered from compromised PCs.

In addition to this, in the first six months of 2009, 200 brands in total were phished for the first time by the online criminals, representing an increase from the latter half of 2008. In all, more than 2,300 brands have suffered attacks since 2005. According to Cyveillance, brand abuse tactics were continuously used by the cyber criminals for distributing malware in the first half of 2009.

The security firm also discovered that there was a continuous increase in pharming attacks for obtaining personally identifiable information (PII), malware distribution as well as several other malicious online activities in H1 2009. Moreover, social networking websites, like Facebook and Twitter, have emerged as the main target of malware distributors and phishers.

Related article: APE Tool for Apple Patches, Is Flawed

» SPAMfighter News - 9/5/2009