Malware designed to steal IDs increased 600 percent
The number of users victimized by malware specifically intended to rob personally identifiable information (PII) leapt 600 percent this year compared to the same period in 2008, according to a report released on Thursday by PandaLabs, a division of Bilbao, Spain-based Panda Security.
Writing on the PandaLabs blog, Luis Corrons, PandaLabs' director, said that of the nearly 37,000 samples of new viruses, worms, trojans and other types of internet threats PandaLabs receives each day, 71 percent are trojans, the majority of which are intended to siphon bank details or credit card numbers, as well as passwords for other commercial services.
"Between January and July 2009, PandaLabs received 11 million new threats, approximately eight million of which were trojans," he wrote. "This is in clear contrast, for example, to the average of 51 percent of new trojans that PandaLabs received in 2007."
