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Internet has never been more dangerous
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 01 October 2009, 15:18 IST |
7 Comments
Bangalore: There seems to be no end to the proliferation of malware online. New records are set and security experts are worried. Just between January and June this year, the number of fake antivirus programs detected grew by 585 percent, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Anti-Phishing Working Group.
During the same period, the number of banking Trojans, designed to steal account information for financial sites, increased 186 percent. The number of phishing Web sites reached 49,084, the second highest number recorded since the record of 55,643 in April, 2007. The number of hijacked brands hit an all-time high of 310 in March and remained at a high level through June.
"The Internet has never been more dangerous," said APWG Chairman, David Jevans in a statement. "In the first half of 2009, phishing escalated to some of the highest levels we've ever seen. Of even greater concern is the skyrocketing sophistication and proliferation of malicious software designed to steal online passwords and user names. New malicious software such as the Zeus Trojan, exhibit a level of sophistication that would make the best software programmers envious."
According to the APWG report, the number of infected computers rose by more than 66 percent between Q4 2008 and the end of June 2009 to reach almost 12 million, 54 percent of the computers scanned.
The Finjan Cybercrime Intelligence Report also examines the increasing sophistication of software designed for online banking theft and notes that some of these programs, such as the URLzone Trojan, have developed anti-forensic techniques to conceal account looting from automated anti-fraud systems and from the eyes of victims.
The tech industry's response to these trends can be seen in initiatives like Microsoft's online anti-scam campaign, it's newly released free Security Essentials software, and calls for greater industry cooperation.
