Consumer Awareness Pushes Growth in Anti-Malware Market

As cyber crime increasingly gets commercialized, it is stimulating development of malware that would progressively create further IT threats more serious in nature, warns Frost and Sullivan, as reported by Vnunet.com on July 10, 2007.

Frost and Sullivan's research estimated the world trade of anti-virus technologies at $4.6bn in 2006 that rose from $4bn in 2005, representing a growth of 17.1%. It is predicted that the same market would grow at a compound annual rate of 10.9% over 2006 to 2013, reaching a height of $9.69bn in 2013.

Frost and Sullivan determined that the drive in such expenditure was in the consumer market where fear of identity fraud and password theft prevailed. The company said unlike the past attacks that destroyed large-scale data, the present day attacks silently steal information primarily for monetary benefits drawing the least notice of users to damages.

Cyber crime now occupies a major portion of the revenue sector of the global organized crime, said Katie Gotzen, industry analyst at Frost and Sullivan, as reported by Vnunet.com on July 10, 2007.

The growing momentum in cyber threats is due to the use of crimeware or software tools to conduct online scams and theft of information from Internet-connected computers of consumers and businesses alike. Thus methods and means for data security are churning large bucks. Therefore, there's an intense competition in both the consumer and business segments.

The major concerns for businesses include the theft of their intellectual property and customer information added with the forced shut down of websites or revelation of sensitive data.

According to Gotzen, malware attacks primarily come from professional criminals who basically want to generate revenue. That is why such attacks are called 'targeted attacks', as reported by Vnunet.com.

She further said that as end-users become more aware of threat levels, it pushes growth opportunities in the anti-malware market.

Meanwhile Microsoft's entry into the consumer market has pushed prices down demanding traditional players to redesign their products. In the business sector, non-security participants are making a mark in the shopping arena. Thus the best specialization or diversification forms the optimum strategies in the current anti-malware market, explained Gotzen, and Vnunet.com published this.

Related article: Consumer NZ Website Encounters Hack

» SPAMfighter News - 7/19/2007