Viruses, worms and Trojans that have circulated across the net have reached an all time high of one million, the highest number of malicious programme to date. Security firm Symantec revealed in its bi-annual report, that most of these malicious programmes have been created in the last 12 months. The Latest Symantec reportedly detected approximately 499,811 malicious code threats during the second half of 2007. This had increased in the first half of 2007 by 136%.
However, 2007 was a year that Symantec had detected over 711,912 new threats amounting to 1,122,311 of malicious programs. The report stated, “…almost two thirds of all malicious code threats currently detected were created during 2007.” Many of the cyber criminals have created programs that fool anti-virus software to look for characteristics already seen by them.
Many of these viruses target PCs with Microsoft Windows and vary from existing malicious programs that have proven useful to the cyber criminals in the past. Symantec stated the increase in numbers was due to the number of Trojans used to access a PC and use that route into downloading and installing various other malicious programs. Furthermore, the increase is also due to the high number of underground professional digital criminals.
Malicious installations include key loggers that are activated when a specific website is visited or a program is started. These include things like online games. Cyber criminals typically employ a number of programmers to generate and create new malicious codes. Due to the programmers looking for payment, cyber criminals are driven to pursue as much money as they can out of the data and information they steal, and continue searching for new victims.
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