McAfee issues its McAfee Threats Report: Third Quarter 2010
* United Arab Emirates: 19 hours, 26 minutes ago
http://www.ameinfo.com/250254.html
McAfee, Inc. issued its McAfee Threats Report: Third Quarter 2010, which
uncovered that average daily malware growth has reached its highest levels,
with an average of 60,000 new pieces of malware identified per day, almost
quadrupling since 2007.
At the same time, spam levels decreased in volume this quarter, both
globally and in local geographies. Spam hit a two year low this quarter
while malware continued to soar. McAfee identified more than 14 million
unique pieces of malware in 2010, one million more than Q3 2009.
One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware that plagued users in Q3 was
the Zeus botnet, the malware at the root of U.S. small businesses losing
$70m at the hands of Ukrainian cybercriminals. Most recently, cybercriminals
unleashed the Zeus botnet aimed at mobile devices, designed to intercept SMS
messages to validate transactions. As a result, the criminal can perform the
full bank operation, stealing funds from unsuspecting victims.
McAfee also saw an increase in email campaigns attempting to deliver the
Zeus botnet, under the disguise of the following recognized organization
names: eFAX, FedEx, Internal Revenue Service, Social Security
Administration, United States Postal Service and Western Union.
Botnet activity remained strong in Q3, the most popular of which, Cutwail,
accounting for more than 50% of traffic in every country. Cutwail bots
engaged in distributed denial-of-service attacks against more than 300
websites, including United States government departments such as the Central
Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and businesses
websites such as Twitter and PayPal.
Although attacks on social media, such as Koobface and AutoRun malware, seem
to have leveled off, the attacks have not ended cybercriminal manipulation.
Twitter, for example, provides an attacker with information on the most
popular terms and trends being discussed. Shortened URL services hide
website destinations, disguising malicious links targeted at users searching
for these popular terms. In Q3, 60% of the top Google search terms return
malicious sites within the first 100 results.
The discovery of the highly-sophisticated Stuxnet worm in July marked the
beginning of a new era, and by September, more detailed analysis found that
Stuxnet is more than just a spy worm, but a weapon written to sabotage
critical infrastructure. Stuxnet has infected thousands of computers of
unintended victims from all over the globe. McAfee Global Threat
Intelligence technology has tracked the breadth and concentration of Stuxnet
infections globally, which were first found in Iran, finding that today
India suffers from the greatest concentration of attacks.
"Our Q3 Threat report shows that cybercriminals are not only becoming more
saavy, but attacks are becoming increasingly more severe," said Mike
Gallagher, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Global
Threat Intelligence for McAfee. "Cybercriminals are doing their homework,
and are aware of what's popular, and what's insecure. They are attacking
mobile devices and social networking sites, so education about user activity
online, as well as incorporating the proper security technologies are of
utmost importance."
==========================================
(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this
message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to
these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed
within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with
"Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.
The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The
Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain
permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials
if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria
for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies
as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four
criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is
determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not
substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use
copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS
PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.
--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
No comments:
Post a Comment