Eighty-eight percent of the new malware detected by PandaLabs in the second quarter of 2006 was related to cyber-crime. This is one of the conclusions of the newly published PandaLabs report, which offers a global vision of malware activity over this period. The report offers a day by day analysis of the most important events related to malware and IT security.
This report can be downloaded, free of charge, from: http://www.pandasoftware.com/pandalabsQ22006/.
One of the conclusions of this report is the confirmation of the new malware dynamic, based on the main objective of obtaining financial returns. The statistics leave no room for doubt: of all the new examples of malware detected by PandaLabs, over 54% were Trojans, compared to 47% in the previous quarter. This type of malicious code is highly versatile and can be used to take a series of actions on infected computers (stealing confidential data such as bank details, downloading other malicious applications, etc.). Bots on the other hand, a type of malicious code used to build networks which are then sold or rented to the highest bidder, were in second place, representing 16% of the total, a four point increase on the previous quarter. New backdoor Trojans accounted for 12%, while dialers represented just 3.8% of all malware.
According to Luis Corrons, director of PandaLabs: “the results show how malware creators are concentrating on profiting from their efforts, creating increasing numbers of Trojans and bots. The greatest danger lies in the fact that they are installed and operate silently without users noticing any of the typical symptoms of infection and therefore victims are unaware that their computers are being used to steal from them or even from third-parties. This false sense of security works in favor of the attackers.”
The PandaLabs reports details other interesting events from the last quarter regarding IT Security, including the impact of new vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office or the problem concerning the recent theft of laptops with confidential information about thousands of users.
