Cisco Presents Overview of Web Malware of Q4-2011

Cisco the security firm, on January 24, 2012, published its Global Threat Report for the fourth quarter of 2011 (Q4-2011), presenting the statistical data on malevolent websites during the quarter. Help Net Security reported this on January 24, 2012.

The main point made in the report is that a general mean of 362 web-oriented malicious programs were experienced every month during 2011, as against the mean of 135 Web-malware during 2010. The maximum percentage, however, emerged in September (698) and October (697) during 2011 representing the mean values per business for the two months.

Also, a mean 20,141 of distinct hosts for Web-oriented malicious programs were witnessed on a monthly basis during 2011, as against a 14,217 monthly mean for 2010. Notably, even with the remarkable rise during September-October 2011 of the mean Web-malware incidences, the percentage values related to distinct hosts continued to be constant for the period.

Meanwhile, there were significantly different percentages of distinct 'malicious programs from the Web,' month over month, throughout 2011. The maximum number of these programs was encountered during November 2011 at 491,750. Immediately after this steep rise, there occurred an even striking decline during December 2011 when merely 49,239 distinct Web-oriented malicious programs were documented.

Importantly, Cisco's report also examines the malware assaults over different sectors. Accordingly, the maximum Web-oriented malware threats occurred within the Chemical & Pharmaceutical industry at 422%, followed with Mining & Agriculture close at 343%, while the Oil & Energy sector had 333% encounters.

Besides, in every quarter of 2011, the Chemical & Pharmaceutical industry constantly encountered the highest mean value for Web-oriented malware threats in comparison with other industries.

Additionally, Q4-2011 also recorded DDoS and SQL-insertion assaults. The former continued at a more-or-less constant rate during 2011; however, there was a slight decline during Q4-2011. Similarly DDoS assaults too remained constant numerically during Q4-2011, although there occurred a subtle rise with the period's advancement.

Finally, the report from Cisco also reveals that as Rustock was shutdown in 2011, and there were shutdown of many other spam-spewing botnets during 2010 too, a direct influence over the general amount of spam continues.

Related article: Cisco Finds Two Vulnerabilities and Recommends for Patches

» SPAMfighter News - 1/28/2012