14 DAY TRIAL // Statistics about the amount of new malicious software show a rise in the occurrence of new threats during 2014, the total count being 143 million.
Basic math tells us that about 12 million fresh strains popped up every month. Further calculations reveal that four samples became available each second.
Constant increase of new threats recorded
The data has been compiled by independent IT security institute AV-Test in Germany from the in-house built analysis tools Sunshine and VTEST. The information is verified and the characteristics of every malicious program caught are classified in their internal database.
In a tweet published on Thursday, AV-Test shared a graph with the total samples it recorded each year, since 2010.
Compared to 2013, AV-Test’s statistics show that malware authors were definitely more active in 2014, as the difference in new threats is of about 60 million. Going further back in time, four years ago, the institute recorded only 17.5 million malicious programs.
The month that saw most of the new threats in 2014 was August, when over 18 million samples were classified by the tools of the German researchers.
As for the total number of threats caught last year, more than 325 million pieces were analyzed during the month of December alone.
Taking a glance at the graph for 2013 and 2014 is like looking at an upside-down pan-pipe, more malware being registered each month. All information was updated by the organization on Thursday.
Statistics refer to Windows and Android threats
The data includes malicious files that passed through AV-Test’s systems regardless of the operating platform they were designed for.
The organization focuses on threats for Windows and Android, which are also the platforms most targeted by cybercriminals, so the malware statistics concern these two operating systems. However, it is unclear how much of the samples affected each system.
Also, no hints are provided as far the type of malware is concerned, or the purpose they were created to serve.
AV-Test is an organization that provides professional evaluations of computer security software. Each month, comparatives regarding the detection efficiency of different products are published, accompanied by ratings based on specific criteria.
Many antivirus vendors rely on the awards received from AV-Test and similar antivirus evaluation organizations in order to promote their products and increase their sales.
In 2014, AV-TEST has registered more than 143 million new malware. That's more than 4 new samples every second! pic.twitter.com/F5N1DJVDRs
— AV-TEST GmbH (@avtestorg) January 8, 2015
