Fortinet - Malware Activities Witness Strong Rise

Fortinet, the leading provider of network security and global major of UTM (unified threat management) solutions, released its Threatscape Report for August 2009 in the end week of August 2009.

The report states that while holidays were in the winding up stage as the summer approached its end, online threat activity continued to thrive. To prove this, Fortinet reports of enormous malware operations carried out via a number of spam campaigns from July to August 2009.

Derek Manky, Project Manager, Fortinet's Cyber Security and Threat Research, states that several waves of malware assaults were observed during August 2009, particularly on July 24, 2009 when Trojan ZBot had pounced with huge malicious activity via HTML/Agent.E! tr, as reported by SC Magazine on August 27, 2009.

Continuing with his statement, Manky said that the ZBot campaign was responsible for record levels of detection per day, beating those of Worm Sober during January 2006, of Worm Storm during January 2007 and fake security software or 'rogueware' during September 2008.

Manky further said that Fortinet witnessed a significant number of spam campaign outbreaks that contained malicious attachments involving a traditional scheme of money mules, designed to project a fake job advertisement.

Over and above these discoveries, the security company states that it came across a number of software vulnerabilities that consistently increased in August 2009 and was more than those in July 2009. Moreover, Fortinet spotted an aggregate of 168 new security flaws, 62 of which were actively exploited online, with most of these exploited flaws given a "critical" rating. Security vulnerabilities rated 'critical,' according to Fortinet, characteristically allow execution of remote code, an easy method for online criminals to infiltrate an end-user's computer.

Consequently, as cyber criminals wait for end-users to become victims of old tactics, the need to identify what and whom to believe cannot be emphasized more. The requirement, says Fortinet, is a vital component for making a strong security framework, implying that big infrastructures cannot afford to slacken their levels of security as cyber criminals repeat their old tactics.

Related article: Fortinet Pinpoints Ten Biggest Threats

» SPAMfighter News - 9/14/2009