The Changing Threat Landscape - Zift Solutions

Malware Multipliers
The malware* world is now largely
financially motivated, which means that
any sort of pertinent, saleable data can be
targeted. West Coast Labs’ own global
malware testing and research programme
continues to show how cybercriminals
worldwide are attacking companies and
individuals around the world, irrespective of
their geographical location.
Customer data (such as passwords, IDs,
or account numbers) as well as credit card
numbers and confidential business information
are valuable commodities that can also include
any sort of information that might make
socially-engineered attacks more effective.
Thus, malware has become more stealthy
and sophisticated, with more frequent
and specifically-targeted attacks from
locations around the world. The propensity
of malware attacks has grown by leaps
and bounds. AVTest.org estimated that
that the total number of malware at the end
of the first quarter of 2008 was almost 12
million files. This represented an increase
of nearly 4 million files from the beginning
of that year and it’s likely that this pace of
increase will continue for the foreseeable
future. A great deal of this increase has
been delivered through the web via
socially engineered attacks leading to
drive-by downloads. Google estimates
that 10% of all websites now contain
malicious content – a significant increase in
just a few short years.
Trend Micro states that while the number
of conventional worms has grown only 22%
since 2005, web threats have increased by
1564% during the same period. Companies
are feeling this effect in their network
environments given that IDC reports that,
“Up to 30% of companies with 500 or more
staff have been infected as a result of Internet
surfing, while only 20-25% of the same
companies experienced viruses and worms
from email.”
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Malware Explained
Malware is the term used to describe a
variety of different types of malicious software
which can include Viruses, Trojans, Worms,
BOTs, Rootkits and Spyware which itself is a
generic term for different types of Backdoors,
Keyloggers, Financials, Proxies, Password
Stealers, Crackers, Downloaders, Hijackers,
and RATs. A complete description of each of
these types of malware can be found on the
West Coast Labs website at:
www.westcoastlabs.com/checkmark/glossary/
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