Number of New Daily Malware Samples Reaches All Time High

McAfee reports that during the previous quarter, the daily malware growth has averaged at 60,000 new samples, which is the highest value ever recorded.

According to the security giant, the number of threats detected this year (14 million) also exceeds the number analyzed in all previous years.

"In 2007 we identified on average more than 16,000 new pieces of malware per day; in 2008 the figure jumped to more than 29,000 per day.

"Last year our daily detections rose to 46,000 per day, and in 2010 we have reached a frightening 60,000 new identifications per day," the McAfee researchers note in their latest Threats Report [pdf].

The daily new bot infection rate has kept below 500,000 and the monthly one has averaged at around 6,000,000.

The most active botnets during Q3 2010 were Rustock and Cutwail, both primarily engaged in spam activities.

Even so, the overall spam levels have decreased during the same period to reach the lowest figure in two years.

The only countries that haven't registered a decline were Belarus, Greece, Indonesia and Russia.

Password-stealing trojans, fake AV programs (scareware), adware, and Java exploits were amongst the most prevalent threats during last quarter, which is consistent with reports from other antivirus vendors.

Panda Security just reported that as much as 40% of all fake antivirus programs were created this year, while Microsoft warned in October of a surge in attacks targeting Java vulnerabilities.

The password stealers (PWS) were favored by cyber criminals because they offer multiple ways of generating income.

The social networking accounts, banking credentials and online gaming passwords they compromise can be abused directly or sold on the underground market.

"Cybercriminals are doing their homework, and are aware of what’s popular, and what’s insecure," said Mike Gallagher, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Global Threat Intelligence for McAfee.

"They are attacking mobile devices and social networking sites, so education about user activity online, as well as incorporating the proper security technologies are of utmost importance," he stressed.