Kaspersky Lab releases"Kaspersky Security Bulletin: January – June 2008"

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, has released its latest half-yearly report: "Kaspersky Security Bulletin: January - June 2008".

The report contains details of the changes which have taken place in the first six months of 2008, and looks at how the threat landscape will continue to evolve. The report covers a wide range of IT threats and includes data provided by leading Kaspersky Lab analysts.

The first part of the report, "Malware Evolution: January – June 2008" is authored by Aleks Gostev, Sergey Golovanov and Denis Maslennikov. It coverts the latest trends in the threat landscape, where virus writers are less interested in sophisticated technologies and the quality of malicious programs than the quantity.

Trojan programs lead in terms of number, making up more than 92% of all malicious programs. Virus writers are attempting to universalize Trojan code, and have moved from creating individual malicious modules which work in conjunction with each to creating a single application which combine all malicious functions. The number of new Trojan programs designed to steal passwords to online games has also grown; every day, Kaspersky Lab analysts detect an average of 273 new gaming Trojans. Of this figure, 259 are designed to steal passwords to several online games at once.

Mobile malware has changed direction: instead of attacking smartphones, virus writers are preferring to dedicate themselves to creating Trojans for J2ME. These programs are capable of running on almost any mobile phone. Such programs send SMS messages which have to be paid for, emptying the user's account and filling the pockets of the Trojan authors.

The number of new threats is following a geometric progression, with threats detected in the wild having a reduced life span. However, the upward trend in the number of new malicious programs has to come to an end – it may be that growth will slow, or even plateau, during this year. Although the figures reached (approximately 500,000 new malicious programs in the space of half a year) will be maintained, the majority of antivirus companies will be capable of dealing with the issues.

Today, the antivirus industry has to solve problems which differ from the problems of the past: specifically, the fact that efforts have to be directed towards the early detection of threats. While in the past it was possible simply to react to new threats in a couple of hours (or sometimes in a couple of days), now the window is counted in minutes. This means that antivirus experts have to identify new malicious code on the Internet – and this could mean at any point around the globe – analyse it, release protection, and deliver it to the end user.

The second half of the report, "Spam Evolution: January – June 2008" is authored by Darya Gudkova, Kaspersky Lab's leading spam analyst. It analyses spam trends for the first half of the year. During the first six months of 2008, spam made up approximately 85% of all mail traffic, with a low of 64.2% being reached on 3rd May, and a peak of 97.8% on 1st March.

The majority of spam messages (44.4%) are in plain text, as this reduces the size of the message (1- 5KB). This means that large mass mailings can be conducted faster. 31.1% of spam messages contain html, but only 23.9% of messages contain images.

The five leading spam categories were as follows: "Medications, health goods and services" (27.45%); "Education" (13.86%); "Fake designer goods" (10.68%); "Travel and tourism" (8.45%); "Electronic advertising" (4.33%)..

It seems likely in the next half year that spammers will continue to experiment with html code, and some old methods may be revived. The volume of spam in autumn is bound to increase after its latest seasonal decline.

The full text of "Kaspersky Security Bulletin: January – June 2008" is available on viruslist. com