Half of all malware attacks last just 24 hours
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Hackers who write malicious programs - malware - are creating about 37,000 new Trojans, viruses and other internet threats every day. But 52 percent of new malware is gone in a day, according to a report from web security firm Panda Security.
The game of cat and mouse with antivirus programs and security companies means malware writers have to create new malware to get around security patches and evade detection.
The firm's research arm, PandaLabs, said it has cataloged a total of 30 million individual malware samples through July 2009. Much of this total has become inactive and harmless as malware are replaced by new variants.
Just 24 hours after hackers put any strain of malware into circulation, they will modify its code so that it can continue to spread without being detected by security companies, PandLabs said.
This explains the significant increase in the number of new threats, from a total of 18 million in 2008 to 30 million by July 31.
"This is a never-ending race which, unfortunately, the hackers are still winning," said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs.
Related News:
UK cops arrest two in Zbot Trojan case - 11.19.2009
The British Metropolitan Police took two suspected cyber criminals into custody earlier this month in connection with an investigation into the Zbot banking Trojan.
Facebook shakes up privacy policy in response to criticism - 11.19.2009
After a week-long comment period in which 7,000 Facebook users voiced their opinions, the giant social media network announced that it would overhaul and simplify its privacy policy.
Domain registrar VeriSign will receive "major security update" by 2011 - 11.19.2009
A well-known security vulnerability in the way .com and .net websites process DNS values - the way alphanumeric website names are translated into numeric web addresses - will be fixed, but not until 2011, according to a report from tech news website ZDNet.
Malware attack targeting fans of Twilight series - 11.18.2009
As with many recent hot news trends, the upcoming release of the second movie based on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books has attracted the attention not just of the vampire wannabes, but of actual cyber criminals as well.
Giant black-hat SEO campaign funnels victims to scareware sites - 11.18.2009
Security researchers say that cyber criminals have conducted a large-scale campaign to influence Google results, pushing malware-spreading sites higher on the list and dropping legitimate results to the bottom.
|
