More malware blocked in July 2008 than in the whole of 2007

In its Global Threat Report ScanSafe reported that the total number of Web-based malware blocks has increased by 87 per cent in July 2008 compared to the previous month. Specifically, the first two weeks in July have shown an extraordinarily high volume of malware blocks.

The increase in Web-based malware was driven by the ongoing compromise of websites which represented 83 per cent of all malware blocks for the month. The increase was largely the result of the continued SQL injection attacks which were responsible for 75 per cent of all malware blocks in July 2008. As a result, July has had an overwhelming number of malware blocks – 34 per cent more blocks than the whole of 2007.

July 2008 also bore witness to an increase in social engineering email scams designed to install malware – including backdoor Trojans and rogue scanners – on victim’s computers. Worryingly, 95 per cent of ScanSafe customers fell for the scams and attempted to clickthrough to the malicious sites, which represented 1.3 per cent of all malware blocks for the month. Fortunately all ScanSafe customers were and are protected from such malicious content.

The ScanSafe Global Threat Report (copy)is based on an analysis of more than 10 billion Web requests the company scans each month on behalf of business customers in over 60 countries across five continents. It represents the world’s largest security analysis of real-world corporate Web traffic.

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