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Malware Numbers Were Insanely High in 2015

Malware reached peak numbers during the past year

Jan 25, 2016 13:30 GMT  ·  By
Malware numbers in 2015 represented more than a quarter of all malware numbers ever detected
   Malware numbers in 2015 represented more than a quarter of all malware numbers ever detected

As expected, malware numbers were up during the past year, and according to data released by Panda Security, the company detected 84 million samples of new malware, 9 million more than in 2014, with around 230,000 new malware samples discovered daily.

The total number of malware strains detected in 2015 is around 304 million, which represents 27.63% of the total number of malware families ever discovered and indexed by Panda Security experts.

Trojans accounted for most of the infections

Out of all the malware types, trojans were the most active in 2015, accounting for 60.30% of all infections, despite being down 5% from last year's number.

PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) were second, with around a third of all infections, followed by adware, spyware, worms, and viruses.

When it came to the location of infected computers, China ranked number one, security researchers discovering malware on 57.24% of all scanned computers located inside the country.

This number is almost 30% more than the country's 2014 numbers, coming to show that, while China is expanding its IT prowess and online presence, its citizens have not yet fully understood the role PC security needs to play.

Besides China, other states with high infection numbers include Taiwan with 49.15%, Turkey with 42.52%, Colombia with 33.17%, Uruguay with 32.98%, and Spain with 32.15%.

Europe has the fewest malware-infected computers

At the other end of the ranking, countries with the lowest number of infected computers were mostly located in Europe. The top three spots are occupied by Scandinavian countries. Finland ranked first with 20.32%, Norway second with 20.51%, and Sweden third with 20.88%.

Out of the top ten, nine of the least malware-infected countries were from Europe, with the tenth being Japan.

Europe's early Internet adoption may have had a role to play in this statistic, but also the fact that many cyber-security vendors were founded in different European countries, and there's a general awareness of cyber-security amongst European Internet users.

UPDATE: As our reader Grandy requested in the comment below, here's a list of antivirus engines that might help you protect your computers.