More than 75 million samples of malware were recorded in 2011, with those targeting mobile devices on the rise, according to security vendor McAfee.
McAfee Labs senior vice-president Vincent Weafer said threats highly evolved in 2011, according to a report on PC World.
“Increasingly, we’ve seen that no organization, platform or device is immune to the increasingly sophisticated and targeted threats,” PC World quoted him as saying.
In contrast, the PC World report quoted McAfee’s figures as saying PC-based malware declined in the fourth quarter of 2011.
“On a global basis, we are conducting more of our personal and business transactions through mobile devices, and this is creating new security risks and challenges in how we safeguard our commercial and personal data,” Weafer said.
Still, McAfee noted the fourth quarter of 2011 was a busiest period for mobile malware, with the bulk targeting Google’s Android OS.
PC World cited McAfee figures indicating an average of 9,300 new malicious sites come up every day in the fourth quarter of 2011.
This was an increase from 6,500 in the earlier quarter.
Most of these originated from the United States (73 percent), followed by the Europe-Middle East (more than 17 percent) and Asia-Pacific (7 percent).
Downfall of spam
McAfee found spam levels to be at their lowest in countries such as the UK, Brazil, Argentina and South Korea in 2011.
But botnet growth rebounded in November and December, with the current “spearphishing” and spam being more sophisticated.
PC World said McAfee’s report also confirmed that data breaches via hacking, malware, fraud and insiders have more than doubled since 2009, reaching 40 publicly reported breaches in Q4 alone. — TJD, GMA News
Article source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/malware-breached-75m-mark-2011-mcafee-report-102607239.html
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