Focusing on a disturbing trend and a serious threat to computers all over the world, ScanSafe, a provider of SaaS (News - Alert) (Software-as-a-Service) Web Security reported that the total number of Web-based malware blocks has increased by 87 percent in July 2008 compared to the previous month. These figures were made public in the company’s Global Threat Report.

 

As social networking is on the rise on the Internet, the spammers and scammers have found a new haven to install their Trojans in these sites. The report states that there was an increase in social engineering email scams designed to install malware - including backdoor Trojans and rogue scanners - on victim's computers. 

But the worrying factor is not the increase in spam, it is the gullibility of more than 95 percent of ScanSafe (News - Alert) customers who fell for such spam and tried clicking their way through these dubious links. This represented 1.3 percent of all malware blocks for the month for ScanSafe. But the company assures that all ScanSafe customers were and are protected from such malicious content.

 

The report states that the increase in Web-based malware was driven by the ongoing compromise of websites, which represented 83 percent of all malware blocks for the month. These were mainly the result of the continued SQL injection attacks, which accounted for 75 percent of all malware blocks in July 2008. Malware blocks surged in July, which accounted for 34 percent more blocks than the whole of 2007.

 

“In June 2008, we reported a 278 percent increase for the first six months of the year. That alarming trend has continued with the number of Web-based malware blocks exploding in the first two weeks of July,” said Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at ScanSafe. “Although this may not seem like a high percentage, it is extremely significant given that these scams are now able to get past spam filters which typically provide a high level of protection from this type of socially engineered malware. It is disconcerting that cyber criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in creating these scams, so much so that more and more people are falling for them.”