According to a report by Panda Security, Trojans accounted for 73% of all malware created during the first few months of this year, and spyware growth has leaped to 13.15%, up from a 2.5% increase in the previous quarter.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of spyware in circulation, aimed, in all likelihood, at saturating laboratories and consequently infecting more users,” says Jeremy Matthews, head of Panda Security's sub-Saharan operations.
In certain instances, he says, cyber criminals have had success, citing the Virtumonde spyware, which infected more computers than any other malicious code in the first quarter of 2009, as an example.
“This malware combines aspects of adware and spyware, monitoring users' Internet movements, rigging search engine results and displaying advertising banners and pop-ups for some products,” he says.
According to Matthews, Taiwan continues to generate the most active malware (31.7%), with Brazil and Turkey occupying second and third place respectively, overtaking Spain and the US.
He adds that Mexico has seen a lowering in the amount of active malware (17.95%), dropping almost 10% compared to the 24.87% active malware average recorded for the whole of 2008.
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