Thursday, July 30, 2009

Malware Numbers Intensify: 92k into 30 Million

PandaLabs announced a multi-year study that examines the proliferation of rogueware into the overall cybercriminal economy.

Click the graphic on the left and prepare to be shocked and amazed.  In 2006 there were less than 740,000 malware samples.  By the end of 2008 there were 15 million.  By the end of June 2009, there were 30 million.  I'm thinking Swiping vs. Typing here.

The report reviews the various forms of rogueware that have beencreated, and displays how this new class of malware has become aninstrumental player in the overall cybercriminal economy.


The study also provides in depth analysis on the increasinglysophisticated social engineering techniques used by cybercriminals todistribute rogueware via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Google.

PandaLabs predicts that it will record more than637,000 new rogueware samples by the end of Q3 2009, a tenfold increasein less than a year.

Approximately 35 million computers are newlyinfected with rogueware each month...

Cybercriminals Earn $34 million dollars per month on rogueware
Background: The History of Malware Growth

Malware has rapidly increased in volume and sophistication over in the past several years. The graph below illustrates the malware landscape from 2003 to 2006 over which the total number of malware samples doubled every year:

Barely five years ago, just 92,000 total malware strains existed; by the end of 2008, there were approximately 15 million. At the conclusion of this study in July 2009, PandaLabs detected more than 30 million malware samples in existence.

The reason behind this vast increase in malware is clear: money. In 2003, banking Trojans quietly emerged on the scene. These malicious codes, designed to steal online banking credentials, now rank among the most common forms of malware. Every day, we see new variants that have evolved technologically in order to evade the security measures banks have implemented.
Click either Graphic to Enlarge and Read




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