Malware Creation Record High of 10m, Says PandaLabs

According to Q3 2013 Quarterly Report by PandaLabs, a primary observation, which comes out, is that the development of malicious programs has struck one fresh high record of almost 10m malware samples detected till now in 2013 around the world.

In fact, during January to September 2013 alone, new malware strains counted to a number which was already that of the entire 2012.

According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, several reasons can be attributed to this malware growth. eWEEK published this dated November 27, 2013.

Corrons observes that although malware creation has always been pretty rapid, still the current figures are higher essentially due to greater inducements to cyber-criminals. Higher revenue from cyber-crime is possible through several methods, with more people accessing the Net as also making more purchases on it, he contends.

Corrons further says that while malware development keeps on growing uninterrupted, the developers aren't necessarily creating fresh samples during 2013. Nearly all malicious programs so far spotted are simply existing ones' variants.

And regarding different kinds of malicious programs getting created, PandaLabs finds that among the top malware kinds, Trojans occupy the first position with almost 77% of fresh malicious software worldwide followed with worms at 13%, viruses (9%), as well as adware (>1%).

A highly disturbing factor during Q3 2013 (July-September 2013) happened to be the development of 'Police Virus' a malware integrated with CryptoLocker.

PandaLabs describes the latest CryptoLocker ransomware has having certain unusual features, which gave its authors good success. These features are as follows: encrypting Web-surfers' precious text, video, image and other files; encrypting files saved within all network drives, in addition to those within the normal hard drive; and resorting to powerful encryption. For any victimized user, who does not pay up the ransom, there is permanent destruction of his files.

Moreover, as far as combating cyber-crime is concerned, the European Parliament has passed legislation making cyber-criminal operations liable for harsher sentences, like anyone just amassing else utilizing a botnet can face at least 3-yrs of incarceration (this does not include other crimes which may've got executed utilizing the same botnet).

» SPAMfighter News - 12/5/2013