NOW READ THIS
("Security Advisory")
Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0354 Collected Malware Samples Rise Dramatically:
Finnish security vendor F-Secure has collected twice as many malicious software
samples this year than it has over the last 20 years, a trend that highlights the
growing danger of malicious software on the internet, according to an internet IT
journal. Through the end of 2006 and 20 years prior, F-Secure counted a total of
250,000 samples, said Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure, but this year alone, 250,000
samples have already been counted.
Statistics on malware from antivirus companies can vary since the data is often
derived from what their customers experience while using their software, and it
depends on how widely that software is used, the article notes.
Other security vendors also report a flood of new malware on the internet over the
last few years. Symantec said earlier this year that it detected 212,101 new
malicious code threats between January and June, a 185% increase over the same
period last year.
The major increase shows that hackers "are generating a large number of different
[malware] variants on purpose to make the lives of antivirus vendors more difficult,"
Hypponen said. "Genuine innovation ... is currently being replaced with volume
and mass-produced kit malware," according to F-Secure$#39;s report, which covers the
second half of 2007.
(www.computerworld.com.au 05DEC07)