Analysts with F-Secure and Websense predict an explosive growth of malware, bot attacks, QuickTime exploits, and viruses that target the iPhone..
At the start of 2007, computer security firm F-Secure had about 250,000 malware signatures in its database, the result of almost 20 years of antivirus research. Now, near the end of 2007, the company has about 500,000 malware signatures.
“We added as many detections this year as for the previous 20 years combined,” said Patrik Runald, security response manager at F-Secure.
F-Secure’s report on 2007 threats isn’t a pretty picture. Beyond the explosive growth of malware, the year also saw the emergence of the Storm worm, a catch-all term for a series of related backdoor Trojans and e-mail worms that have been distributed to create a massive peer-to-peer botnet.
Shortly, F-secure expects the gang behind the Storm worm to open its botnet for business, renting access to other cyber criminals.
The F-Secure report also notes that Trojans that steal online bank login information and Trojans that steal passwords from online games became more popular in 2007 and will likely continue to do so in 2008. Runald notes that F-Secure is detecting 10 to 40 new variants of banking Trojans every day.
The cybercrime market is poised to be even ‘hotter’ in 2008 as spammers increase targeted attacks and create new social engineering techniques to claim their stake in cybercrime’s US$105 billion market.
According to the MessageLabs 2008 security predictions released today, 2008 is predicted to be another year of significant growth as e-crime tools become more accessible and the market becomes more mature and open.
“2007 was the year of prolific cyber-crime with certain gangs becoming famous within the security industry. Notoriety within a hot market always encourages an influx of new players wanting their slice of success and thus, the threat market is set to be even hotter in 2008,” said Mark Sunner, chief security analyst at MessageLabs.
Targeted attacks will increase in sophistication and malicious video file attachments will replace the unsuccussful use of MP3 file attachments.
