F-Secure Reports Growth in Internet Crime

In its End-of-Year Data Security Wrap-Up for 2008, F-Secure announced that 2008 has been yet another record year of explosive growth in the amount of malicious software on the Internet. 

F-Secure's detection count tripled meaning that the total amount of malware accumulated from over the previous 21 years increased by 200% in the course of this year.

 

Criminal activity for financial gain remains the driver for the massive increase in Internet threats. Today's malware is produced by highly organized criminal gangs using increasingly sophisticated techniques.

 

Botnet activity has increased greatly this year. These remotely controlled networks of infected computers remain a major challenge to the IT security industry because the botnets' vast computing power is behind the unprecedented level of spam e-mail and malware distribution.

 

In 2008, Internet security issues once again made global news, from the huge rise in the amount of malware produced in the Chinese language during the Beijing Olympics, to attacks on the computer systems of the presidential candidates in the United States.

 

Three major London hospitals were also affected by a computer virus outbreak, while the United States Department of Defense decided to ban the use of USB memory sticks because of the security threat they pose. 

Malware even went into space this year, as an online game password-stealer made its way onto the International Space Station on an infected laptop.

 

Didn’t they lose a tool box? Just goes to show, that no one is safe from threats on the Internet.