Cisco - Whole quarter of Q2-2010, experienced Unique Malware Hosts & Malicious URLS

According to the Cisco's '2Q10 Global Threat Report' released in July's last week, the level of unique malware hosts and malicious URLs stayed persistent in almost all the months, in Q2 - 2010.

It is a very important trend regarding web-based malware, as this is the first tracking since detection started in 2007, the level of malware hosts and URLs stayed more or less same during a whole quarter. In spite the constant level of malicious URLs and malware domains, the average rate on a daily basis accelerated month-over-month during the whole quarter, Q2-2010.

It should be noted that in Q2-2010, the repeatedly encountered suppliers of web-based malware were Gumblar-compromised websites.

In addition to this, a considerable rise in SQL injection cases can be seen starting in the end of March and in the beginning of April, 2010, continuing during the whole second quarter. This increase in SQL injection and IPS cases combines with a similar rise in compromised websites set up by SQL injection cases during the time.

The increasing SQL affected websites in Q2-2010, ended in June 2010, with a return of Asprox botnet. The main reason behind compromised websites in the middle of 2008, Asprox (and all other SQL injection attacks) rapidly decreased during 2009, with Asprox totally invisible during Q1-2010.

Also, according to the report, Pharmaceutical and Chemical vertical companies were the most vulnerable targets for web malware threats, bearing an increased rate of risk (543%) in Q2-2010.

Moreover, an increased peer-to-peer (P2P) action were noticed in the three major P2P networks like eDonkey, Gnutella and BitTorrent, during the whole Q1-2010, with maximum growth in March, 2010. Constant high consumption in Q2-2010, in addition with latest P@P malware events, depicts that P2P file shares are getting more and more preferred by both users and malware attackers.

In addition to this, beside these discoveries, Cisco's latest report observes that Eastern Europe with 37% experienced the maximum amount of web-based malware in Q2-2010, after it, there were South America with 14% and China with 11%.

Related article: Cisco Finds Two Vulnerabilities and Recommends for Patches

» SPAMfighter News - 8/6/2010