2009 sets new records for malware with 25 mln new strains

The report reviews the major incidents and events concerning IT security in 2009. The trend in IT security of the last 12 months has been the prolific production of new malware – 25 mln new strains were created in just one year, compared to a combined total of 15 mln throughout the 20-year history of PandaLabs, the anti-malware laboratory of Panda Security.
According to the Annual Malware Report, available at: http://www.pandasecurity.com/img/enc/Annual_Report_PandaLabs_2009.pdf , this latest surge of activity included countless new examples of banker Trojans (some 66%) as well as a host of fake antivirus programs (rogueware). The report also draws attention to the resurgence of traditional viruses, previously on the verge of extinction, such as Conficker, Sality or the veteran Virutas.
During 2009, spam was also highly active: some 92% of all email traffic was identified as spam. The tricks used to dupe potential victims into opening these emails have focused heavily on exploiting current affairs and dramatic news stories, a tendency which also applied to SEO attacks. As such, Panda saw waves of junk mail related to celebrity scandals or deaths (real or fictitious), swine flu, compromising videos of politicians, etc. In the past year PandaLabs also tracked how spam impacted different industrial sectors, revealing how the automobile and electrical industries were the worst affected, followed by government institutions.
As regards malware distribution channels, social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Digg), and SEO attacks (directing users to malware-laden websites) have been favored by cyber-criminals, who have been consolidating underground business models to increase revenues.
Panda’s Annual Malware Report also examines how individual countries and regions have been affected throughout the year, based on the data gathered from computers scanned and disinfected free of charge with Panda ActiveScan (www.activescan.com ). Taiwan tops the rankings, followed by Russia, Poland, Turkey, Colombia, Argentina and Spain. Countries suffering fewest infections include Portugal and Sweden.
Last year also saw a rise in the number of news stories related to cyber-attacks with political motives or targets, suggesting that this is no longer the preserve of sci-fi movies and conspiracy theorists and is now becoming a reality.
Finally, PandaLabs has predicted that the amount of malware in circulation will continue to grow in 2010. Windows 7 will surely attract the interest of hackers when it comes to designing new malware, and attacks on Mac will increase. While we are likely to witness more politically motivated attacks the report concludes that, once again, this will not be the year of the cell phone virus.