Kaspersky Lab - General News -Kaspersky Lab forecasts ten-fold increase in new malware for 2008

Kaspersky Lab forecasts ten-fold increase in new malware for 2008
9 Apr 2008
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According to the companys analysts, in 2007 the number of new
malicious programs recorded on the Internet, including viruses, worms
and Trojans, amounted to 2,227,415, which represents a four-fold
increase on the results for 2006 (535,131). The overall volume of
detected malware reached 354 GB in 2007. Before the year was out, many
leading antivirus experts were calling this huge increase in malware an
extreme situation. Some antivirus companies were simply incapable of
effectively combating the sheer number of threats.

However, the year-end results for 2008, according to the experts at
Kaspersky Lab, will demonstrate a very different trend. They forecast
not a four-fold but 10-fold increase in the number of new malicious
programs - an increase of more than 20 million.

In addition to the quantity, the quality of malicious programs is also
improving. New and more complex samples, such as the notorious Zhelatin
(aka the Storm Worm), are emerging that demonstrate a wide range of
hostile behavior and distribution methods.

The number of new signatures added to the Kaspersky Lab antivirus
databases in 2007 amounted to 250,000. According to our forecast, 1
million new signatures will be added to the databases in 2008. With the
help of new technologies developed by the companys antivirus
specialists, it will be possible for a four-fold increase in the number
of new signatures to combat the 10-fold increase in the number of new
malicious programs. These technologies allow one signature to
successfully neutralize dozens or even hundreds of different types of
malicious programs.

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