Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2009. Malware Evolution 2009

[Earth Bound Misfit]

Trends

2009 was the latest milestone both in the history of malware and in the history of cybercrime, with a marked change in direction in both areas. This year laid the foundation of what we will see in the future.

In 2007 – 2008, the creation of non-commercial malware almost died out. The main type of malware was data-stealing Trojans, and cybercriminals paid particular attention to data belonging to online gamers – their passwords, their characters, and their in-game assets.

Over the last 3–4 years, China has become the leading source of malware. Chinese cybercriminals have shown themselves to be capable of creating such huge volumes of malware that over the last two years, antivirus companies have, without exception, put most of their effort into combating Chinese malware.

The statistics generated by different companies differ (some companies count the number of files, some count the number of signatures, and some the number of attacks), but everyone’s statistics reflect the precipitate growth in the number of malicious programs in 2008. While Kaspersky Lab identified around 2 million unique malicious programs over a period of 15 years (between 1992 and 2007), in the space of a single year (2008) the company identified more than 15 million unique pieces of malware.

In 2009, the number of malicious programs in the Kaspersky Lab collection reached 33.9 million.

Much more at link: http://www.viruslist.com/en/analysis?pubid=204792101