2009: the year of malware
By Peter Wolchak
October 1, 2009
October 1, 2009
It never rains but it pours, according to people who craft old sayings, and it turns out they were correct. On top of the poor economy, 2009 is also set to be the worst year on record for malware.
McAfee Avert Labs catalogued more than 1.2 million unique samples of malware in the first half of this year alone, meaning bad people are well on their way to smashing last year’s record of 1.5 million unique pieces of malware in all of 2008.
McAfee Avert Labs catalogued more than 1.2 million unique samples of malware in the first half of this year alone, meaning bad people are well on their way to smashing last year’s record of 1.5 million unique pieces of malware in all of 2008.
“In the first half of 2009, we saw about three times the unique malware discovered over the same period in 2008,” said Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications at McAfee. “This tremendous growth is a signal of daunting times for users, as malware infiltrates more and more of the platforms we trust.”
Malware is increasingly used to generate profit. For more on financial fraud check out McAfee’s white paper. Key stats from the report include:
> 30 to 40 per cent of all password-stealing Trojans focus on gaming and virtual worlds
> 80 per cent of all banking e-mails are fraudulent
> the average loss per victim from phishing is US$866.
Malware is increasingly used to generate profit. For more on financial fraud check out McAfee’s white paper. Key stats from the report include:
> 30 to 40 per cent of all password-stealing Trojans focus on gaming and virtual worlds
> 80 per cent of all banking e-mails are fraudulent
> the average loss per victim from phishing is US$866.
