McAfee, Inc. Q2 Threat Report Reveals Malware at All Time High with 6 Million Malicious Files Found This Quarter, While Spam ...
August 10 2010 - 3:01AM
Business Wire
McAfee, Inc. (NYSE:MFE) today unveiled its McAfee Threats
Report: Second Quarter 2010, which uncovered that malware has
reached its highest levels, making the first six months of 2010 the
most active half-year ever for total malware production. At the
same time, spam leveled out with only 2.5 percent growth from Q1
2010.
Malware continued to soar in Q2 2010, as there were 10 million
new pieces cataloged in the first half of this year. Consistent
with last quarter, threats on portable storage devices took the
lead for the most popular malware, followed by fake anti-virus
software and social media specific malware. With approximately
55,000 new pieces of malware that appear everyday, globally AutoRun
malware and password-stealing Trojans round out the Top Two malware
threats.
After reaching its highest point in Q3 2009, with nearly 175
billion messages per day spam rates have hit a plateau.
Cybercriminals took advantage of anticipation on and hype of the
FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and used various methods to promote
scams and search-engine “poisoning.” Globally, the most popular
types of spam varied from country to country with some interesting
findings. For instance, delivery status notifications, or
non-delivery receipt spam, were the most popular in United States,
Italy, Spain, China, Great Britain, Brazil, Germany and Australia.
Malware spam, or anything that comes with a virus or Trojan
attachment urging you to visit an infected website, was the most
popular in Colombia, India, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam.
Argentina had the most variety in spam, with 16 different topic
areas, ranging from drugs to lonely women to diplomas. Italy came
in with the least variety, with just six types of spam.
“Our latest threat report depicts that malware has been on a
steady incline in the first half of 2010,” said Mike Gallagher,
senior vice president and chief technology officer of Global Threat
Intelligence for McAfee. “It’s also obvious that cybercriminals are
becoming more in tune with what the general public is passionate
about from a technology perspective and using it to lure
unsuspecting victims. These findings indicate that not only should
cybercrime education be more widespread, but that security
organizations should move from a reactive to a predictive security
strategy.”
Attackers leveraged major events such as the World Cup and
Middle East conflicts to poison Internet searches, however the BP
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was surprisingly absent from the
Top 20 toxic search terms. Additionally, McAfee Labs saw a
resurrection of two “dead” botnets. Storm Worm and Kraken, once
considered to be among the biggest botnets on the planet, are again
on the rise.
For a full copy of the Q2 2010 Threats Report, please visit:
http://www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/reports/q22010_threats_report_en.pdf
About McAfee, Inc.
McAfee, Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is the
world's largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee is
committed to relentlessly tackling the world's toughest security
challenges. The company delivers proactive and proven solutions and
services that help secure systems and networks around the world,
allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse, and shop
the web more securely. Backed by an award-winning research team,
McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users,
businesses, the public sector, and service providers by enabling
them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent
disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and
improve their security. http://www.mcafee.com
NOTE: McAfee, McAfee Labs and Global Threat Intelligence are
registered trademarks or trademarks of McAfee, Inc. or its
subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other marks
and brands may be claimed as the property of others. © 2010 McAfee,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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