iTWire - China hardest hit as malware attacks increase

China hardest hit as malware attacks increase

By Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 05 May 2009 16:04

China received the brunt of a rise in malware attacks around the world in April, doubling its share of attacks from the previous month as the lucrative online gaming market attracted hits from cybercriminals.

Network security vendor, Fortinet, in its Threatscape report released today, reveals that April recorded the highest monthly malware volumes detected this year, with online
gaming and adware threats prominent.

Derek Manky, project manager, cyber security and threat research at Fortinet, says the lucrative marketplace created by online gaming has quickly attracted cyber crime, predominantly in China, with China leap-frogging over Japan and the U.S. with a 44.86 percent global malware share in April, which was nearly double its 24.17 percent share from the last report in March.

“April was a busy month for cyber criminals who unleashed the most aggressive malware attacks thus far this year.

“We believe this upward trend will endure with online gaming attacks continuing to dominate,
especially with Real Money Trading becoming a big business, now an estimated $2 billion annual market.”

Manky says that four new malware variants landed in April’s top 10 malware list, three of
which were online gaming related Trojans.

According to Manky, W32/Virut.A is still “king of the hill”, claiming first position for two consecutive months, building on a year-long run within the top 10 list. These threats, Manky added, collectively formed a significant portion of April’s detected malware activity.

Manky also said that one of the most active malware families, Waledac, had launched a fifth campaign since the beginning of the year.

“Waledac is multi-functional, with the ability to receive and spew custom spam templates, launch denial of service attacks, and download further components. It was also spotted on Conficker’s
network which, in concert with its own various campaigns, has further helped this threat to gain momentum.”

To read the full April Threatscape report follow the link to http://www.fortiguardcenter.com/reports/roundup_apr_2009.html.