Ordinarily, we talk about growth as a good thing. If the economy grows, it’s excellent news, for example. On the malware front, though, huge growth does not make for happy headlines.
By all measures, the malware news is pretty much all bad. “Every type of malware is growing unabated and shows no sign of slowing down,” Deepak Thakkar, director product marketing, datacenter security solutions at McAfee, told IFSEC Global in an interview. “It is becoming critical that we study the nature of malware.”
Viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, adware, advanced persistent threats (APTs), and crimeware, are all growing. In fact, McAfee catalogues more than 100,000 new malware samples each day, a 50 percent growth over last year. “You name it, it’s happening,” says Thakkar. “These threats are increasing in volume and getting more sophisticated.”
The rise in malware itself would not be worrisome, if not for the fact that the rate that important and sensitive data is exiting the network weren’t following a similar trajectory.
Today, most users report that there is some sort of security solution on their systems. In fact, only 2.9 percent of users currently have no security product installed, according to the “IT Security Survey 2013” from AV Comparatives released last month, which surveyed more than 4,000 computer users worldwide. Worldwide, 55.2 percent pay for their security solutions, while 41.0 percent use a free antivirus or Internet security solution.
Nearly three quarters (72.7 percent) said that high protection levels are most important, while 27.3 pointed to low impact on system performance. Detection rate, malware removal/cleaning capabilities, heuristic detection, and protection while surfing the web top the list of critical security capabilities, according to AV Comparatives.
Unfortunately, a single-point solution probably isn’t enough to adequately protect the user, the organization, and its critical data. “You have to take a multipronged approach,” warns Thakkar. “Small and midsized businesses are spending time and money on security, but the bad guys are doing a better job of staying ahead of the curve compared to point solutions.”
Further, organizations need to leverage a combination of holistic technology, end-user training, and strong and enforceable policy to start to address malware effectively. Late last year, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) and the London Action Plan (LAP) released a cooperative international report that outlines best-practices in these areas. Titled “Best Practices to Address Online and Mobile Threats,” the report assesses Internet security as it stands today and explains in non-technical language the proactive steps that can help mitigate risks.
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