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During the year 2008 PandaLabs, Panda Security's laboratory, found every day, on average, 35,000 copies of malware, 22,000 of whom were new infections. At year end the number of threats detected by Panda exceeded 15 million. This figure surpassed the initial forecast of the company that was five million. This avalanche of malicious code caused in August last year PandaLabs malware had been detected as well as in its 17 year history together. 99% of those threats were detected automatically by Collective Intelligence, the innovative technology of Panda Security to detect and analyze malware in the cloud.

New malware

Espla annual report that most new malware, 67.7% were Trojans, that is, was designed to steal confidential data like bank account numbers, passwords, etc..

New malware in 2008, "The feeling of the public is safe and so, in many cases, do not use security measures or do not use all they should. The truth is that there is more malware than ever and feeling of security that only favors the cybercriminals to infect more computers without being discovered, "explains Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs.

The Trojans, with 70.1% of the total, were the type of malware that infected more computers, followed by adware (19.9%) and worms (4.22%). This means, therefore, that over 94% of malware found on computers of users was one of three categories.

Regarding the threats that have grown in 2008, PandaLabs Annual Report highlights the role of the fake antivirus. This is a special type of adware that makes users believe they are infected with dozens of examples of malware, then offer a paid version of a fake antivirus program that supposedly removes those infections. Prices of those fake antivirus programs are around 50 euros and according to PandaLabs estimates could be generating a profit for cybercriminals approximately 10 million euros per month.

Banking Trojans: The Threat Continues

Banker Trojans were one of the main threats in 2008. This is a type of trojans aimed at getting bank details of the users concerned and thus steal their money.

Normally these Trojans stay resident in memory and only activate when the user accesses the website of certain banks. To this end, the Trojans have a list of banks that attack.

"For the criminals is relatively easy to obtain these malicious programs, as there is a market selling everything from Trojans to the letter and the bank called kits, which allow not only to create Trojans with multiple functions, but control them and send new instructions" explains Corrons.

The main types of banking Trojans PandaLabs distinguished:

1. Brazilian Banker Trojans (Banbra, Banks): These are designed primarily to steal passwords from Brazilian and Portuguese banks, although it is possible to find variants of Spanish banks in the Banks family. They normally transmit the information obtained via email or FTP.
2. Russian Banker Trojans 1.0 (Cimuz, Goldun ...): This type of Trojan is increasingly used since its detection has become easier. Still, we continue to see many variations in circulation.
3. Russian Banker Trojans 2.0 (Sinowal, Torpig, Bankolimb): Created to replace the previous, it is malicious code that constantly changed and updated, making it difficult to detect. They all have a common function: the list of entities to be monitored to steal the credentials obtained from a configuration file, which can be well along the Trojan on a server or partly controlled by the cyber criminal, so that no have to modify the Trojan to add a new entity.

The annual report PandaLabs further information on the current state of spam on the most important vulnerabilities of 2008 and on trends in the field of malware for 2009.

You can download the annual report PandaLabs here http://www.pandasecurity.com/spain/homeusers/security-info/tools/reports.htm