Kaspersky Predicts Tenfold Rise In Malware Attacks in 2008

Russian IT security provider, Kaspersky Lab, predicts a ten-time rise in the volume of new malicious malwares that will go on rampage over the net in 2008. Lab has notified about 20 Million samples of malware.

According to Kaspersky, the number of malwares registered on the net together with Trojans, viruses, and worms totaled to 2,227,415 in 2007. This meant a four-time rise since 2006 when the malware count stood at 535,131.

But, prior to the start of 2008, several anti-virus specialists were terming this massive rise in malicious software as a critical condition, the Russian purveyor stated. Kaspersky cautions that irregularity will be the latest standard, and that in the past year (2007) it included 250,000 fresh strains to its anti-virus listing.

In 2007, Kaspersky anti-virus lab found over 2 Million new-sprung viruses, about two time greater than 2006. There is a minimum of five fresh malware strikes on the Web in every two minutes that indicates the primary cause why the figure is projected to increase twofold once more in 2008.

As indicated by the firm's prediction, one million fresh strains will be included in the 2008 databases. Besides, the number, the quality of malware has enhanced too, Kaspersky disclosed.

The firm further said that with the emergence of new-fangled and sophisticated varieties like the malevolent, Zhelatin (alias the Storm Worm), a large variety of aggressive activities and propagation techniques are also surfacing.

Besides, e-mail is responsible for the distribution of malwares but email attachments are nowadays substituted by a hyperlink. Usually, consumers are sent messages with themes like "You have received an e-greeting", or "There is a video clip for you at YouTube", and a link is then e-mailed.

What's more, cyber-criminals are teaming up on various forums and Web pages to create test-tools that duplicate the scans of several of the major security programs. This permits cyber-terrorists to fine-tune their creations so that they are imperceptible prior to their introduction.

Also, Trojans, viruses, and worms that have spread throughout the Internet have touched their highest point at one million, the maximum number of malware so far. Security vendor, Symantec, also disclosed that there were around 499,811 malware threats in the latter half of 2007. This had already risen by 136% in the initial six months of 2007.

Related article: Kaspersky Released Malware Statistics for September 2008

» SPAMfighter News - 4/14/2008