Malware Increasing through Personalized Assaults, Exploit Toolkits and Social Media: M86 Security

M86 Security in its security review of July-December, 2011 elaborates that cyber-threats had grown through advanced personalized assaults utilizing digital certificates obtained via theft; online scams against social media; as well as extensive utilization of the Blackhole exploit toolkit. MarketWire published this dated February 8, 2012.

The company, after probing the e-mail threat tendencies and the Web in general during H2-2011 to prepare its bi-annual study paper, analyzed malware and spam operations comprising the present utilization of attack toolkits, social-networking scams, and fake digital certificates, as well as traced down worldwide trends of online-security.

Notably, according to M86 Labs, while since years, spam has remained the minimum, however, the total e-mail junk having malevolent attachments increased to over 5 percent from not even 1.

In fact, incoming spam amounts declined to 70% of the entire incoming e-mail traffic during December 2011 from over 90% during September 2010; however, it yet accounted for a large percent of all incoming electronic mails as also happened to be increasingly malevolent.

Moreover M86 stated that when spam, segregated in categories, those touting pharmaceuticals accounted for 46.17%, dating -21.53%, replica watches -14.50%, software -7.73%, and malware web-links -6.90%.

Further, it's stated in the study paper that the country being the supreme host of malware was USA at 51.4%, with Russia following at merely 6%. Additionally, the greatest originator of spam had been India with 11%, while Russia in 2nd and South Korea in 3rd places were at 7.8% and 6.3% respectively.

Characteristically, prominent botnets in marginal numbers were behind the maximum amount of e-mail junk. The Top Spambot List by Type, which M86 prepared for 2011 included Lethic with 26.8%, Donbot -17.8%, Festi -14.7%, Grum -13.9%, Cutwail4 -8%, Cutwail1 -7.4%, Cutwail2 -2.6% and others -8.9%.

The company reports that during 2011, personalized assaults became sophisticated as well as targeted various kinds of organizations like military, crucial national infrastructures, and commercial firms. Besides, direct assaults on national infrastructures and governments rose wherein a keylogger-carrying virus, which invaded the PCs regulating America's Drone Fleet, as well as the so-called assault against the water supply plant of Springfield were most well-known.

Related article: Malware Authors Turn More Insidious

» SPAMfighter News - 2/13/2012