Latest malware threats go local say McAfee

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 24 February 2008 18:52

Opinion and Analysis

The technical skills of Russians in a stumbling economy make for an active market of hackers, say McAfee.

Some of the most notorious attack toolkits are produced in Russia and sold in underground markets. These gray-market malware tools, combined with lack of legislation against cybercrime, lead experts to believe that the Russian mafia will soon - if they haven't already - latch onto computer crime.

Although the Russian economic situation, like that of China's, has driven many hackers to a life of cybercrime, McAfee’s Avert Labs is predicting that with a strengthening economy and stronger law enforcement, Russian-made malware will gradually decrease.

Then it’s onto Brazil, where “miscreants have made an international showcase out of the country when it comes to bilking online bank accounts”.

With a majority of Brazilians banking online, cybercrooks are using sophisticated social engineering scams to trick Brazilians into giving up personal information.

In 2005 alone, the Brazilian Banks Association estimated losses at R$300 million (about US $165 million) due to virtual fraud. Malware creators rapidly adapt password-stealing Trojans to the changes banks make to their Web sites.

Pretty scary stuff – and the banks keep on insisting that Internet banking is safe!

McAfee’s global view of threats through the eyes of Avert Labs, by the numbers, shows that:

- 371,002 - Total threats identified by McAfee Avert Labs as of Feb. 1, 2008
- 131,800 - Threats identified by Avert Labs solely in 2007
- 53,567 - Unique pieces of malware in 2006
- 246% - Growth of malware from 2006 to 2007
- 527 - New malware identified daily by Avert Labs at the start of 2008
- 750 - Expected number of new malware identified daily by Avert Labs at the end of 2008

Joe Telafici, vice president of McAfee’s Avert Labs operations says that: "It's mind-boggling how sophisticated and savvy some of these attacks are. Cybercriminals are learning to exploit the cultural uniqueness of computer users around the world. But our global team of experts is prepared to fight against them and protect users."

Of course, McAfee’s anti-malware solutions aren’t the only ones out there – all the major Internet security packages promise anti-malware protection these days, while a number of freeware anti-malware programs exist, such as Spybot’s Search and Destroy and Lavasoft’s AdAware,  amongst others.

There are also programs such as ZoneAlarm’s Forcefield and PC Tools’ Threatfire, while TrustDefender takes a different approach to secure your online banking and other transactions.

McAfee’s ‘Sage’ report is available for free download through the McAfee Threat Center.