
How many compromised PCs are poised to strike?
Published: 10 February 2006 14:30 GMT
The number of compromised computers at large on the internet has increased considerably over the past year with Trojan activity more than doubling, according to Kaspersky Labs.
The Russian antivirus company revealed a 124 per cent increase in Trojans intercepted between the first and the last month of 2005. Backdoor Trojans were the most common, accounting for 29 per cent of Trojan infections.
These forms of malicious code are typically used to create networks of compromised machines – or botnets. It is almost impossible to know the scale of the problem or get a handle on how many compromised machines are currently lying idle ahead of possible malicious use in the future, while their owners are oblivious to the threat.
According to MessageLabs, botnets now account for around 80 per cent of the world's spam.
Kaspersky also noted a dramatic rise in the amount of spyware in the wild, saying increases in both figures are further evidence of the financial motivation driving the production of malicious code.
Yury Mashevsky, virus analyst at Kaspersky, wrote in his report Malware Evolution 2005: "There was a sharp increase in the number of nearly all types of Trojan programs. The computer underground is becoming increasingly criminalised, focusing on accessing and using confidential information to gain access to profitable data, whether that be system resources, bank accounts, proprietary information or online games.
"Trojan programs can be used to gain access to such data."
Our web developers are shaping the user experience for the games, services, apps and software that will transform how people use their phones around ...
The successful applicants will be expected to work on all statistical programming aspects from, data listings and data summaries to figures and ...
Utilizes SAS and other analytical software in the creation of tables, figures and listings. Uses SAS/GRAPH, SAS/BASE, SAS/MACRO, and SAS/STAT and ...
Agenda Setters 2009
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.
Stories from the web...
Copyright © 2008 CBS Interactive Limited. All rights reserved. Top of page
Bob Tarzey Why you must rein in your power users When they do damage, it can be catastrophic to your business
Jon Collins Is losing a mobile device really such a big deal? How to minimise the damage to your business