Malware threat 'evolving'
16/04/2008 10:19:01
The malware threat posed to IT departments in British businesses is evolving, according to a new study.
Although firms questioned as part of the 2008 Information Security Breaches Survey said that infection caused by malicious programs was down by 60 per cent compared with two years ago, two-thirds admitted that malware had led to their worst security breach of the year, reports Public Technology.net.
The study, carried out by a consortium led by PricewaterhouseCoopers, revealed that attacks using Trojans, viruses, worms and spyware are becoming more sophisticated. Where infection had previously been the goal of an attack, it now just marks the first step of more lucrative assaults, according to the technology news provider.
Dr Guy Bunker, chief scientist at Symantec Corporation, one of the consortium members responsible for the survey, commented: "The motivation of malware writers has changed. Law enforcement in this area has improved around the world. As a result, the kudos derived from writing a disruptive worm to gain notoriety is outweighed by the personal consequences."
He went on to say that criminal organisations are employing malware writers to put together a "stealthy code" to open security pathways, which can then be further exploited to make money.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Small Business Computing said that, for small firms especially, losing computer data can damage a company's reputation as well as hurt financially.
