‘F-Secure’ Released E-Threats Report for 2009

F-Secure, which has recently released a new report containing information about e-threats and other software discovered during 2009, states that the first iPhone virus, 'Conficker' and Microsoft's Windows 7 were the most prevalent threats this year.

Expressing his views, Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer of F-Secure, said that there had been exceptional developments regarding IT security during 2009, as reported by ComputerWorld on December 4, 2009. The researcher said that the malware attacks had never been as massive as in 2009, when Conficker infected a peak 10 Million or more computers globally and continued to hit millions of others even as 2009 approached its end.

Hypponen further said that Conficker was an extremely sophisticated malware that employed many new tricks. He added that its botnet was also gigantic, which malware-operators didn't use for anything worthwhile. Meanwhile, Conficker's story is still not known, making it a highly mysterious component in the malware's history, he opined.

Additionally, Hypponen reported that 2009 had been the year of software giant Microsoft. It introduced Windows 7 OS to substitute Windows XP and Vista that had been subject to vital security problems. Towards the end of 2009, iPhones had been targeted to spread an unprecedented malware for profit in the context of same program.

Besides these problems, some other e-threats remained headache for security experts and Internet users. Cyber criminals exploiting people's faith in social-networking websites, carrying out Search Engine Optimization (SEO) poisoning and distributing fake antivirus software have also left great mark on this year's history.

According to Hypponen, not long ago e-mail was a common mean to infect computers, but now the method has shifted Web-surfing in which increasing numbers of attacks are abusing social networks' inherent trust.

Hypponen also said that the majority of visitors redirected to malevolent websites were gathered via SEO assaults in which the perpetrators using trendy keywords seeded Google or other prominent search engines in such a manner that Web surfers landed on criminals' malicious sites that compromised their computers.

Ultimately, modern virus authors are still motivated with money-making, while criminals in 2009 have hugely targeted online resources to use them as profitable commodities.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 12/10/2009