Antivirus News

KUALA LUMPUR: Trend Micro Inc, a provider of security software, hardware and services has published its 2006 Threat Report and 2007 Forecast.  

The report forecasts a further increase in web threats next year. Web threats are defined as those that use the Internet to perform malicious and often self-perpetuating activities.  

Malicious attackers are increasingly using public networking sites to hide their malware, with unsuspecting users downloading malicious files, often triggering multiple infection routines. 

Money remains the primary driver behind the majority of threats. Web-based threats have increased by almost 15% since last December accounting for almost half-a-million reports this year. 

2006 saw the disappearance of large virus outbreaks, replaced instead by smaller targeted or regional attacks.  

A targeted attack focuses its aim on a particular group of people â?? such as a specific company or user group.  

Regional attacks are similar, but target a country or region with a carefully crafted piece of malware using some type of event that would be of importance to the target group.  

Outbreaks are quite different in this new situation, affecting fewer users and often combining multiple pieces of malware to create one blended threat. 

Trend Micro anticipates that this trend will continue to be used by attackers in 2007 and beyond.