Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
Summary: McAfee and Cisco have released their detailed cybersecurity reports for the third quarter and there's good news and bad news. Malware surged in the quarter, but spam eased off a bit.
McAfee and Cisco have released their detailed cybersecurity reports for the third quarter and there's good news and bad news. Malware surged in the quarter, but spam eased off a bit.
Here's a look at cybersecurity by the numbers for the third quarter. McAfee said in its more consumer focused report:
- 60,000 new pieces of malware were identified a day, quadruple the 2007 rate. In the third quarter, McAfee identified 14 million unique pieces of malware, up 1 million from a year ago.
- The Zeus botnet led to small businesses losing $70 million to Ukranian cyberthugs.
- The most popular botnet was Cutwail, which used denial of service attacks against 300 Web sites.
- In the third quarter, 60 percent of top Google search terms delivered you to malicious sites in the first 100 results.
Cisco's more enterprise-focused report had the following gems:
- 10 percent of malware was encountered via search engines.
- 7 percent of all malware was referred by Google, followed by Yahoo at 2 percent and Bing at 1 percent.
- Exploits targeting Sun Java was 7 percent of all encounters in the third quarter.
- Adobe Reader and Acrobat exploits declined from 3 percent of all malware in July to 1 percent in September.
- 38 percent of those hit by Stuxnet were in the U.K. with 25 percent in Hong Kong.
- Like McAfee, Cisco reported the volume of spam dropped---except for items sent from Russia and the Ukraine.
- Here are the verticals most at risk for Malware.
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Talkback
So, why does anyone still use Google?
"60 percent of top Google search terms delivered you to malicious sites in the first 100 results."
"7 percent of all malware was referred by Google, followed by Yahoo at 2 percent and Bing at 1 percent."
I have seen this first hand at our organization, where my users pick up malware regularly from using Google search, while those who have switched to other search engines rarely do so. Add to this the fact that Google is absolutely lousy for tech search and I have to ask:
Why does any knowledgeable person still use Google?
RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
Mainly because Yahoo is a smelly web parasite and Bing can't find shit
Isn't that the point?
RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
HA! @itpro_z I love it!
RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
Your blaming google for the malware problem?? HAHAHAHHA
How about putting the blame where it really belongs.The IT people responsible for keeping the web sites/servers patched/coded properly so there web site isn't used for spreading malware.
Since when is it a search company's responsibility to scan web sites for problems????
Try reading the article
Friends don't let friends "Google".
RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
It's very good!
Use some smarts
I also use Web of Trust to flag bad links - and I use Firefox with NoScript, so I not much chance of picking up malware even if I visit a bad site.
RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
Read the article, man. It doesn't say sixty percent of Google searches point to malicious sites, it says sixty percent of TOP GOOGLE SEARCH TERMS (TERMS) yield results that point to at least ONE malicious site IN THE FIRST 100 RESULTS! (i.e., as little as ONE PERCENT, not sixty)
That suggests more that people in your organization spend far too much time searching on Lindsay Lohan, Justin Beber and Bristol Palin than that there's something wrong with Google. I'd be surprised if the search engines you favor do any better. It's more likely that the users sophisticated enough to switch search engines are less likely to waste company time on frivolous searches so they're less likely to get hit.
The reason Google referred more people to malware than Yahoo or Bing is that more people USE Google than use Yahoo and Bing combined. If most people drive a Chevrolet, then most accidents are going to involve Chevrolets; but it's not Chevrolet's fault.
I can't comment on your last point about tech searches. I do pretty well with Google, and so must most other people who keep it the #1 search engine by a wide margin.
You don't happen to work for Microsoft, do you?
Maybe people are wiseing up?
RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
Gotta change the law so we can strike back
MalWare Activity is Severe from People without Soul
RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
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RE: Cyber security by the numbers: Malware surges, spam declines in third quarter
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