Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management systems has released its latest quarterly report on IT security threats, entitled Malware Evolution: April – June 2007
Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management systems has released its latest quarterly report on IT security threats, entitled Malware Evolution: April – June 2007.
This latest report is strikingly different from Kaspersky Lab’s previous quarterly reports. Virus writers are continuing to suffer a creativity crisis, as is shown by the absence of new ideas and fundamentally new types of threat, while cyber criminals are moving to assembly-line production of primitive malicious programs. The report focuses on key problematic moments connected with the evolution of the Internet and new technologies and vulnerabilities that pose a threat to Internet users round the world.
The report tracks the movement of the “guerilla” cyberwar, during which Russian and Estonian websites were attacked. Great detail is given to blows suffered by the parties in conflict, and the report examines the problem of identifying the masterminds and executors of these kinds of attacks in the future, especially in the context of international relations.
Kaspersky Lab analysts believe that another important trend is the continuing evolution of mobile threats. In the past quarter, the first SMS Trojan for Symbian was detected; it sends text messages to fee-based numbers. The report also examines how secure the Apple iPhone, a recent comer to the market, actually is. The popularity of the iPhone, the availability of documentation for its operating system, and the existence of vulnerabilities in the system all mean that a threat for this smartphone is already a reality, although there are also reasons to be optimistic.
The full version of the report can be found online at Viruslist.com.
