Cyber Criminals Looks Towards Mobile

Worms Like Mobile Too.

Symantec’s 18th annual Internet Security Threat Report is was issued yesterday. The report reveals that cyber criminals are increasingly scouring the Web for personal details in order to target their attacks. Armed with your information they can exploit security gaps in social networks and other sites to infect your system or steal your details.

It is no longer just your PC that’s at risk either; the report shows an alarming 58 percent increase in attacks on mobile devices with just under a third of these aimed at stealing data without the user’s knowledge. Android is the most targeted mobile platform as its open source nature makes it easier to hide malware in apps. Apple users receives a bas news as well because the report notes more than 600,000 Mac systems were infected by a single attack last April.

When it comes to the types of threat, the growth of ransomware continues with infections becoming more aggressive and harder to undo. I have written articles many times regarding ransomware threats and sadly I believe this trend will continue.

Another very scary statistic is that 61 percent of malicious sites are actually legitimate websites that have been compromised so you may be at risk even if you think you’re practising safe surfing.

Another alarming piece of information is the news this week issued by Microsoft that they believe 24 percent of all PCs are not protected by virus software today. This is bad for everyone because users who do not protect their PCs are the first ones to get infected and often complicate and threaten even PCs that are protected. I have written several articles in the past regarding free anti virus solutions so there is really no excuse for this.  You can learn about Microsoft's free anti-virus solution in my early article dated October 3, 2012.