Drive-by Downloads Observed in Over 50% of Malware Assaults

Sophos the company for data protection and IT security, which released its new "Security Threat Report 2012," evaluates in detail the threat scenario starting with hacktivism as well as notes that over 50% of malware assaults against Web-surfers currently comprise drive-by download assaults.

Specifically as per the report, a certain attack code for drive-by download is responsible for 31% of the total assaults over the Web spotted during H2-2011. The package apparently has been termed 'Blackhole.'

Indeed, Beth Jones, Senior Threat Researcher at Sophos says that it was hard for spotting Blackhole exploit, which continuously made itself up-to-date, so as to manipulate fresh un-patched security flaws. SCMagazine published this on January 27, 2012.

Additional results of the report show that over 30,000 Internet sites become contaminated everyday, with 80% of them actually being lawful that aren't cyber-criminals' creation but their hacking into them alternatively insertion of code for supporting malicious content. Further, 85% of the total malicious programs, including adware, spyware, Trojans, worms and viruses are Web-based, wherein the most widespread threat is drive-by downloads.

In a survey, Sophos conducted online, when respondents were enquired of the scale of malware prevalence they perceived in comparison with 2010, 67% said that it was growing.

The USA ranks highest globally among the spam originators, allowing 11.43% of the total traffic intercepted during 2011. Close on the heels was India, however, at 8%.

Basically, according to Jones, there was inadequate patching effort, with a 15% contamination attempts on consumers that was because of the Conficker virus for which a patch was available 3-yrs back.

Moreover, the most dangerous region for operating a PC-network is Chile. When measured in terms of the percentage rate of PCs encountering assault from malware during a 3-month span, Chile's TER (threat exposure rate) was 61%, almost tenfold of that of USA, while China with a 45% TER ranked second.

Actually as per Sophos, quicker detection rates and proactive defenses aided in tackling high infection rates. Among the 5.5m distinct strains that Sophos' customers saw, merely 93 signature files for detection diffused as many as 80% of those strains, the company estimates.

Related article: Drive Lock Sales Surge to Block USB Forts From Spreading Malware

» SPAMfighter News - 2/3/2012