12/14/09
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Money the driving force behind malware
From Conficker to Koobface to jailbroken iPhones, and hundreds of viruses, worms and other malware, 2009 was a year of tremendous growth that was unaffected by the global recession, according to F-Secure's Data Security Wrap-Up for 2009. So, what motivates the criminal gangs that offer malware on demand? The same thing that motivates criminal gangs to get involved in other illicit acts: money. “In 2009 criminals have shown that they have an insatiable appetite for online resources which can be turned into commodities,” said Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at F-Secure. Their botnets are being used for search engine optimization attacks, for pushing rogue security software, and for hosting websites that drive consumers to scams and drive-by downloads. While leading the way in terms of insidious money-making malware, Conficker continues to infect millions of computers, said F-Secure, the company predicted that the next money-making treat is targeting smartphones. Smartphones are increasingly used for internet-based activity, including social media, which itself experienced substantial growth in the past year. At the end of 2009 jailbroken iPhones became a target for the first profit-motivated malware on this platform. The speed of the malware evolution for jailbroken iPhones – two separate attacks over the course of a month, is “a telling sign of the times,” the report said.