Kapersky warns cybercrims are on the march and the threats are mounting

Staff Writers
Wednesday, 04 February 2009 07:27

IT Industry - Market

Be warned! Kapersky Labs has just come out with a security report for 2009 warning that two major threats to be on your guard for this year are the infection of computers via removable storage media and the infection of Internet sites with malicious code.

In its computer security industry report forecasting the key trends for 2009, Kapersky says the number of malicious programs and their modifications, as well as the rate at which they are distributed, continues to grow rapidly.

Kapersky, a developer of secure content management systems, says “one of the main developments is the infection of computers via removable storage media such as USB flash drives, CDs and DVDs. Recent mass infections of PCs have been caused by malicious programs that automatically launch from such media, often because users are unaware of the risks attached to them.”

Second on the list of prime threats, according to Kapersky, is surfing the web, with the company’s security experts saying they have seen a sharp increase in the number of Internet sites infected with malicious code.

“Between one in every 50 to one in every 300 sites is currently infected, according to various sources – in 2006, those figures were 10 times less. This is the result of virus writers mastering techniques that enable malicious programs to be modified every time they are downloaded from a site.
 

And, just to add to our woes, another worrying development has been the greater use of popular Internet sites that are trusted by users to spread malware, with a warning by Kapersky that they estimate that more than half of all malicious programs will be placed on such sites in 2009.

But, that’s not all. Kapersky’s experts see Internet fraud such as phishing and the theft of bank card details becoming even more widespread in 2009 with the continued rapid growth in financial and banking services enabling clients to make e-payments, manage their bank accounts or exchange currency online.
 

Kapersky also has a number of other warnings to heed:
• “As more and more children and teenagers gain access to the Internet particular attention needs to be paid to the  protection of minors on the Internet, and the importance of parental control systems that enable dangerous or  undesired content to be filtered.
• “More and more malware will incorporate technologies that combat detection and deletion from computer systems. The  number of malicious programs specifically designed to bypass certain types of filters are expected to grow.
• “Virus writers will continue to exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems and popular applications, a factor that  will be especially relevant considering the release of Microsoft Windows 7 in 2009.
• “The growing popularity of alternatives to Windows, such as MacOS and Linux, will inevitably lead to an increase in  the number of malicious programs attacking those operating systems as well.”