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Keeping up with the complexities of malware

By Todd Weller, VP, Corporate Development, Hexis Cyber Solutions

Reading through news and opinion sections on
IT-focused blogs and websites, it’s not
uncommon to come across assertions like, "the
threat landscape is growing more complex/fast-
paced." Certainly, this isn’t news to anyone, but
what does it actually mean?

A group of researchers at G DATA recently
released the results of a study that may give
some clarity here.

According to the report, G DATA found that in
2014, almost 6 million new strains of malware
came to the attention of the security community.

Of the 6 million, researchers found 4.1 million of them in the second half of the year alone. For
comparison, only 3.4 million new kinds of malware were discovered throughout the entirety of
2013.

Adware Stands Out in the Rising Tide of Malware
The complex nature of today’s threat landscape is tied to the endless wave of new malware
variants security teams and their tools have yet to discover. When one considers that most
security solutions can only protect networks from known threats, it's clear that organizations are
at risk of being overwhelmed.

The report furthers that among this increase in new malware, adware has grown to be one of
the most prominent types.

A recent CSO article defined adware as, “…malware that infects existing ads to cause malicious
downloads, force intrusive popup ads, and plant additional malware on a user's system, leading
to a data breach or attack on critical systems”.

Banking Trojans Out of Vogue
The rise in malware coincides with the decline in the use of banking Trojans, which are geared
toward stealing financial data from banks and other institutions.

The G DATA report stated that the number of targeted banking Trojans dropped by 12-percent
in 2014, which may be a function of the increased attention and better security that the financial
industry has enacted over the last few years.

41 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – June 2015 Edition
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