F-Secure reports 100 percent increase in malware during 2007
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 06 December 2007, 00:26 IST
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Helsinki: F-Secure, a provider of internet security, in its 2007 data security summary, has reported a steep increase in the amount of new malware detected during 2007. The amount of cumulative malware detections has doubled during the year, reaching about half a million, indicating the new malware variants produced in bulk by the network criminals. "We've never seen as many samples arrive at our labs," said Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer, F-Secure. "We would have been unable to handle such huge samples loads if we had not built a high degree of automation into our malware analysis systems over the past years," he added. While no new malware technologies were seen, the existing ones were refined and adapted for much greater effectiveness. Social engineering remains a key method for propagating malware, and criminals are increasingly using more productive malware development tools and kits. One example of a refined technology was the 'Storm Worm' botnet. The successful social engineering methods, the Storm gang used during the first half of 2007 were further developed in the second half of the year. Financial transactions have remained a favorite target for network crime, says the report. The amount of phishing sites have continued to increase, but with bank customers becoming more aware of this threat, the criminals have started employing more sophisticated techniques. Other increasing data security phenomena during 2007 included parasitic behavior, like the Zlob DNSChanger, and increasing security exploit activity for Apple products, including both Mac's, iTunes and the iPhone. Although on the mobile front, Symbian S60 has aided curbing malware with its 3rd edition software, F-secure has continued to see spy-tools for the Symbian S60 3rd edition platform. Also the increasing popularity of 'unlocking' the security controls of both iPhone and Symbian phones has introduced increased risks for the unlocked phones. F-Secure has predicted that the increase in malware volume will continue in 2008.

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