Malware infections growing more deadly
Malware infections growing more deadly
Malware infections have tumbled by 60% over the last two years, yet their increasing sophistication has caused even greater problems for companies.
Two-thirds of organizations affected by malware said it was responsible for their most serious security breach of the year, resulting in them losing confidential data or acting as a spam relay.
Full results of the Information Security Breaches Survey (ISBS) carried out by a survey led by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP will be launched at Infosecurity Europe London next week.
The report attributes the significant drop-off in companies reporting virus, worm, Trojan, and spyware infections from 35% two years ago to 14% this year to better security precautions by firms. Improvements to anti-virus software, scanning of incoming email for viruses, and scanning for spyware have all helped quash the number of malware threats.
Instead of malware being the end goal, criminals are now using it to open up security holes that can be exploited indirectly.
"The battle is still on, it's just changed from being obvious and high-profile to silent and obscure but is just as lethal," said Dr Guy Bunker, chief scientist at Symantec, one of the consortium members responsible for the survey.
By Janine Milne
Original Article
