2012 security threat report

Sophos has posted an interesting item on its website, the Security Threat Report 2012 and it is worth spending a few minutes reading it. Apparently commercial software kits are available to create malware and the increasing availability means that people are more easily able to create viruses, Trojans, rootkits and other undesirable infections.

Everything we do these days involves the web and so criminals are increasingly using this to target people. Sophos reckons that there were an astonishing 30,000 new infected URLs every day in the last half of last year.

The Conficker worm is thought to have infected 11 million Windows PCs, but the main reason for this is that people aren't using Windows Update to download and install all the latest updates and security patches. Update Windows, install a decent security program and you're protected. How hard is that? Yet millions of people don't and that's partly why Windows malware spreads so widely and so fast. If you think you may have this infection then there's a free removal tool here.

Fake anti virus programs used to be rife, but they are in decline. When you are browsing the web you may see a page or a pop-up that says your PC may be infected with a virus or it might offer a free scan, which then says you're infected. You are then offered an anti virus program that will clean up your PC - for a fee. Never install any anti virus program this way, you'll regret it. The fall in numbers of these may be due to successes in catching the perpetrators or maybe people are just getting wise to this con trick.

Sophos said, "In June of 2011, the FBI busted a cybergang that tricked nearly a million people into buying its fraudulent software. The fake antivirus software ranged from $49.95 to $129 apiece, and the scam netted more than $72 million."

Last year the Rustock botnet was taken down. It had the capacity to send out 30 billion spam emails a day! That's an incredible number. When it was shut down spam dropped by 30%. It was sending out emails trying to sell Viagra and other pharmaceuticals.

There are many more interesting fact and figures in the Security Threat Report 2012 so go and take it look. It's worth a read.