Infrastructure

Home page

Infrastructure

Malware will increase sharply in 2009

12 January 2009 12:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Aynur Veliyeva â€“ APA-Economics. Panda Security, the global IT security vendor, has predicted a continuing increase in the amount of malware (viruses, worms, Trojans, etc.) in circulation in 2009. Between January and August 2008, Panda Securityâ€™s laboratory had detected as many malware strains as in the previous 17 years combined, and this trend is expected to continue or even grow in 2009.
Banker Trojans and fake anti-viruses will be the most prevalent malware types in 2009. Banker Trojans are designed to steal login passwords for banking services, account numbers, etc., while fake anti-viruses try to pass themselves off as real antivirus products to convince targeted users they have been infected by malicious codes. Victims are then prompted to buy the rogue antivirus to remove these bogus infections. Cyber-crooks are currently profiting substantially from this type of fraud.
Similarly, malware distribution through SQL injection attacks will continue to rise. This type of attack infects users that visit certain Web pages without them even realising. To do this, cyber-crooks exploit vulnerabilities on the servers that host these pages.
andaLabs forecasts a significant proliferation of malware targeting new platforms such as Mac OS Leopard X, Linux or iPhone in the coming year. However, these new codes will never be as numerous as those for Windows systems.
Over the last few months of 2008, PandaLabs has reported a clear correlation between the financial crisis and an increase in malware strategies and techniques. The laboratory discovered that every stock market drop was followed by a spike in the amount of malware in circulation. Similarly, the increase in the unemployment rate has continued to translate into a boom of spam offering false jobs. Cyber-criminals have increased their tendencies to prey on unemployed people with attractive job offers in order to capture money mules: people to help them launder money generated from illegal activities.
Summing up, malware in 2009 is expected to grow and become more sophisticated and more difficult to detect. There will also be an increase in Web-based attacks and attacks through social networks, which allow for more silent infections.