London, April 1, 2008
According to the Q1 2008 report from PandaLabs (Panda Security) adware was the most common malware type in the first three months of the year and accounted for 28.58% of all infections.
New malware in 1st Q
Trojans with 25.46% of all infections, and worms with 9.94%, were the other most prevalent malicious codes.
With respect to new strains that have appeared over the last three months, 62.16% were Trojans, 20.34% were adware and 8.87% were worms.
“The huge amount of new Trojans put in circulation every month indicates that cyber-criminals are interested in creating new strains more frequently, making detection increasingly difficult for security solutions. These fail to update signature files in time, leaving users unprotected”, says Dominic Hoskins, UK Country Manager, Panda Security UK.
As for the most active viruses in the first quarter of 2008, the list is headed by the Comet adware. Another adware NaviPromo has taken second spot while notorious infection spreader Bagle.HX worm came third.
Threats to cell phones
PandaLabs Q1 2008 report includes a specific section on threats to cell phones: Smartphones, iPhones, etc. According to Panda Security’s laboratory, the main threats to these devices are worms, Trojans and spyware (spyphone).
Hoskins explains that their behaviour and features are similar to malicious codes for computers. He adds: “Trojans designed to steal confidential data like email passwords, instant messaging contacts etc. are the most prevalent, with 54.48% of all infections. This shows attacks against cell phones are becoming increasingly sophisticated”.
PandaLabs has outlined the following issues as the most likely to occur as a result of malicious activities targeting smartphones:
Malfunction: cell phone blocking.
Loss of productivity: battery consumption.
Unnecessary costs: sending of SMS to premium numbers.
Loss of data and information: deletion of folders and messages.
Theft of confidential information: phone numbers, SMS or other sensitive data that could be stored in the device.
PandaLabs Q1 2008 report details information on issues such as the main vulnerabilities discovered over the first three months of the year; a recent innovative attack that uses rootkits capable of replacing the computer’s Master Boot record (MBR); or an analysis of the evolution of “Storm Worm”, considered as one of the most prevalent worms in the previous year.
You can download the PandaLabs Quarterly report from http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/security-info/tools/reports
