...proving once again that the current approach to fighting malware (assuming your software engineers are better that the badguy's software engineers) is a failed strategy.
gary
Malware hits all-time high in January
Summary
The amount of unique malware tracked by security vendor Fortinet, reached an all-time high in January.
Topics
The amount of unique malware tracked by security vendor Fortinet, reached an all-time high in January.
Its distinct malware volume soared to over 9,000 last month, more than twice that in December, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Fortinet collects data from its FortiGate network security appliances and intelligence systems located globally, and compiles monthly threat statistics from the data.
Topping the charts were variants of Bredolab, accounting for more than 40 percent of all malware activity. The Bredolab downloader program, which has assumed the No. 1 position since November 2009, has been associated with the Gumblar attacks, said Fortinet.
Also highlighted in the report was the wave of attacks known as Operation Aurora--a major talking point following Google's threat last month to pull out of China. Fortinet said the attack, which uses a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, was ranked No. 4 on the list of top 10 attacks for January.
For more on this story, read Fortinet: Malicious code hits record-high in Jan on ZDNet Asia.
Talkback Most Recent of 10 Talkback(s)
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gdstark1310th Feb 2010 -
Linux not mentioned
SUR-PRISE!
Wintel_BSOD10th Feb 2010 -
RE: Linus not mentioned
I suspect that's because the majority of consumer machines are Microsoft. Certainly Linux has less malware problems. If I were to write my own OS today, I could claim it was 100% malware free. Linus fall somewhere between those extremes. I'm not discounting the fact that unix is better written than windows, just that it's obviously not anywhere near as targeted as windows. Not even close.
garygdstark1310th Feb 2010 -
Well, look for yourself...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Linuxvirus
Mostly old and can be counted on two hands.
Now if there's something out there that you know about, then please tell them. You'd be doing them all a great favor.
Wintel_BSOD10th Feb 2010 -
RE: Well, look for yourself...
Not sure I understand...this doesn't contradict anything I said.
garygdstark1310th Feb 2010 -
Primary Targets
You're absolutely right, M$ Win is a primary target since its the popular majority for every PC user in the world.
Linux, although a GREAT OS, is obviously the minority, therefore is rarely targeted and the usual audience for Linux are fairly technical personel/users. Even with the advent of Ubuntu becoming available to the common end user and compared to as the Windows for new Linux users (although we all know that wine), its still not as widespread as the 30 year old behemoth.
Like Google, who's now just as widespread but on an entirely different level, there's money to be made in breaking a system like that, or infecting the masses -- you don't go after the small potatoes, thats just the truth of the matter.
Security through obscurity never sounded more true than it does now...
I blame the increase of malware on the most common and most wide spread issue -- end-user education. Always have and always will be. Its something we have yet to fix and there's no update or patch that will fix that.
btw, its obvious trolls lurk here, call em' like you see it, so lets not feed them
vitamin.delta@...14th Feb 2010 -
Loverock Davidson10th Feb 2010 -
Wintel_BSOD10th Feb 2010
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Eternal vigilance
Eternal vigilance is the PC-users only way - no matter what system.
Agnostic_OS16th Feb 2010 -
RE: Malware hits all-time high in January
i got a nasty case of malware last year it hit internet xplorer like a fat iron on a wrinkly clothes. i was so anoyed now i am still unable to upgrade to ie 8 and sometimes when i have this ie clicked on it encounters and error and closes. right when i open click onit. its bad news. i have been with firefox fora long time even before this malware. but i just dont know... im really disapointed in ie
emopoops16th Feb 2010
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