Malware 'grew by 100 percent' in 2007

The amount of malware detected on the internet doubled in 2007, according to the software security company F-Secure.

New malware variants are being created by cyber criminals "in bulk", according to F-Secure, which is based in Finland. Social engineering continued to be a favored way for cyber criminals to deliver malware, often conning email recipients into opening links that lead to web site hosting the malware.

Patrik Runald, security response manager at F-Secure, said: "We've never seen as many samples arrive at our lab."We would be unable to handle such huge loads if we would not have built a high degree of automation into our malware analysis systems over the past years." Online financial transactions are a favored target of cyber criminals, F-Secure warned, with the amount of phishing sites increasing exponentially.

So-called Man in the Browser attacks, where banking Trojans are fed directly into applications are also becoming more popular. For information on other digital products and services visit Broadband National.

IBM: Malware getting more sophisticated

This year has seen a sizable increase in the amount and sophistication of malware being disseminated around the internet, according to IBM's security research team, X-Force.

So this year far the team has identified 210,000 examples of malware, more already than in all of 2006. The most http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifpopular category of malware in 2007 has been Trojans, accounting for 28 percent of all malware detected. In 2006 it was Downloaders that were the most popular form of malware.

Kris Lamb, director of X-Force, said: "The X-Force security statistics report for 2006 predicted a continued rise in the sophistication of targeted, profit-motivated cyber attacks. "This directly correlates to the rise in popularity of Trojans that we are witnessing this year, as Trojans are often used by attackers to launch sustained, targeted attacks." However, X-Force also found that vulnerabilities have actually gone down so far this year, the first time that vulnerabilities have lessened in the first half of a year. Meanwhile, research published in PLoS Medicine states that at least one-third of all spam is touting health products.

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Google Includes Security Software In Pack

Google Includes Security Software In Pack

Now the search engine giant Google has included the Norton Security Scan in its free pack of useful software, called Google Pack.

The Norton Security Scan is a user-friendly security tool that allows users to scan their PCs for viruses and spyware. In addition, the security software is able to remove all the viruses, trojans and malware, which it detects on a PC.

Rowan Trollope, vice president of the engineering consumer business unit at Symantec, said: "Offering Norton Security Scan through the Google Pack is the perfect way to reach the everyday Internet home user. "Our goal is to provide Internet users everywhere with a powerful and easy-to-use tool to help them evaluate, and understand threats that may reside on their PCs."

Meanwhile, weblogs on Google's Blogger.com page are being used in phishing attacks and to spread malware, according to a recent report. The site may have been chosen by cyber-criminals due to its popularity in search-engines, the research from Internet security firm Fortinet stated.

"Security continues to be at the forefront of Internet users concerns," states Mark Weibel, EVP of Marketing for Broadband National Inc. who operates the Internets leading comparative shopping website for digital products. "Norton has long been one of the leaders in security and is a terrific compliment to Googles suite of offerings."

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