14 DAY TRIAL // McAfee Inc. global leader in Intrusion Prevention and Security Risk Management has reached another milestone as malware is regarded. The negative record refers to the doubling of the number of security threats. This context comes as McAfee has added this week the 200.000th threat in its data base of malicious software. The record growth of malicious threats to both businesses and home users accounts for the doubling of the total number of virus definitions since 2004 in only 60% of the time it took McAfee to compile 100.000 virus definitions. McAfee Avert Labs had added the 100.000th virus definition in September 2004, and only two year after, released the security solution for the 200.000th threat.
"It's remarkable to note that it took 18 years for our database to reach 100,000 malicious threats -- and just under two years to double to 200,000," said Stuart McClure, senior vice president, global research and threats at McAfee. "Although security awareness continues to improve, hackers and malicious code authors are releasing threats faster than ever before, with approximately 200% more malicious threats per day than two years ago."
In a malware ranking bots hold the lead, exploits and downloaders come in second place, and e-mail threats are third.
"There are now hackers for hire in spamming and phishing campaigns, and they're in it to work," said Jimmy Kuo, a research fellow at McAfee's Avert Labs. "When you create a big incident ... the police react and they go searching for you," he added. "So the bad guys don't create these incidents anymore."
McAfee added no less than 27,340 new threats to its database in 2004. 2005 saw the number of virus definitions grow by 56,880. From January 2006, approximately 32,000 new threats have been added and McAfee predicts that it will exceed 60.000 virus definitions this year alone. Given the meteoric rise of malware presence on the Internet, the number of virus definitions for 2008 is expected to reach 400.000.