Virtual Event: Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit - Watch Sessions
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Malware & Threats

New Malware Jumps to 73,000 Samples Every Day, Says PandaLabs

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s anti-malware laboratory, has found that the number of threats in circulation has risen, reporting a 26 percent increase in new threats compared to the same period last year.

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s anti-malware laboratory, has found that the number of threats in circulation has risen, reporting a 26 percent increase in new threats compared to the same period last year.

Malware Growth ChartIn the first three months of 2011, PandaLabs said it had identified an average of 73,000 new malware strains each day, most being Trojans. And we are only halfway through March. In 2010 PandaLabs said it saw an average of approximately 63,000 new threats each day.

Overall, Trojans remain the most popular type of threat to computer systems, and now account for 70 percent of all new malware. Trojans, such as the popular ZeuS Trojan, have prooven to be incredibly lucrative for cybercriminals to commit fraud or steal money from Internet users through the online banking channel.

“The proliferation of online tools that enable non-technical people to create Trojans in minutes and quickly set up illegal business – especially when it provides access to banking details – is responsible for Trojans’ impressive growth,” said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs.

Not all kind of Trojans grow at the same pace, according to PandaLabs. When investigating the subtypes of malware, PandaLabs found that Banker Trojans have decreased, bots have remained steady, and fake anti-virus or rogueware has decreased in popularity. However, the number of “downloaders” has increased significantly. Downloaders are a subtype of Trojan that, once it has infected a user’s computer, connect through the Internet to download additional malware. Hackers often use this method because the downloader is lightweight – only containing a few lines of code – and can go completely unnoticed unlike other Trojans.

Written By

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.

Malware & Threats

Threat actors are increasingly abusing Microsoft OneNote documents to deliver malware in both targeted and spray-and-pray campaigns.

Malware & Threats

Unpatched and unprotected VMware ESXi servers worldwide have been targeted in a ransomware attack exploiting a vulnerability patched in 2021.

Malware & Threats

A vulnerability affecting IBM’s Aspera Faspex file transfer solution, tracked as CVE-2022-47986, has been exploited in attacks.

Cybercrime

The recent ransomware attack targeting Rackspace was conducted by a cybercrime group named Play using a new exploitation method, the cloud company revealed this...

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped urgent updates to fix a trio of security problems in multiple software products, including a virtual machine...