Cybercrime goes Global

Security software and solutions vendor McAfee has released its Threats Report: Third Quarter 2012, which explores techniques in cybercrime as well as the global evolution of cyber exploits. 

The latest report uncovers new details of “Operation High Roller”, tracks that mobile malware almost doubled the previous quarter’s total, and reveals an all-time high in database breaches. 

McAfee Labs also saw jumps in some categories of malware, including ransomware and signed binaries. Rootkits and Mac malware continue to rise, while password-stealing Trojans and AutoRun malware also trended strongly upward.

“Cybercrime exhibits few signs of slowing down,” said Vincent Weafer, Senior Vice- President, McAfee Labs. “Though we tend to highlight the numbers, the fact is that we continue to see increased sophistication of attacks. Cybercrime, hacktivism, and cyber warfare are in a continual state of evolution. Everyone from governments to large enterprises, small business and home users are facing a wider range of digital threats from these forces, as they gain more actionable intelligence on their victims, and leverage the newest attack platforms and exploits tools to launch their campaigns. We all need to equip ourselves with basic situation awareness to our online risks and how best to prevent and combat these threats.”

Each quarter, the McAfee Labs team of 500 multidisciplinary researchers in 30 countries follows the complete range of threats in real time, identifying application vulnerabilities, analyzing and correlating risks, and enabling instant remediation to protect enterprises and the public.