Stupendous Rise in Malware Generation: PandaLabs

According to the revelation of Q3-2011 report by Spanish security vendor, Panda, 5 Million new malware samples were discovered, as reported by v3.co.uk on November 3, 2011.

However, this steep rise from 68% in Q2-2011 to over 76% in Q3-2011 was accomplished followed by theft of banking details and account log-in credentials.

The firm's latest report revealed huge number of computer Trojans, accounting to at least three out of every four samples as this form of information-stealing malware.

In addition the most prevalent type of malware achieved the second position and recorded computer viruses at 12%, which showed a decline of four percentage points quarter-on-quarter. Third position was grabbed by computer worms with a decline of 6.26% from 11.69%.

However, fraudulent anti-virus still continues to be a problem, pushing the newly discovered adware samples up from 1.37% Q2-2011 to 3.52% in Q3-2011.

As per the report, the top 10 most prevalent malware specimens accounted for 49.97% of all infections. But this estimate seems to be deceptive as many entries on the list are generic detections including several malware families.

However, as per the report, among the listing of Top 20 countries with most infections, China topped the list. Taiwan (50.93) and Turkey (46.68) grabbed the second and third position, respectively with Russia and Poland following. Sweden with a meager 23.36% hit the list with lowest detection rate followed by the UK, Switzerland and Germany.

According to Technical Director of PandaLabs, Luis Corrons, countries with lowest detection rate of infection should be studied and the technologies and practices adopted by them should be followed consistently to combat malware infections, as published in the Luis Corrons.

In addition, the launch of new social networks like Google+ are also described in the report, as cyber crooks assimilate new dimensions to launch their malicious campaigns, which ultimately lead to a surge in malware generation.

» SPAMfighter News - 11/11/2011