Panda Security, The Cloud Security Company, has published the results of its 2013 Annual Report, drawn up by PandaLabs. According to the report, malware creation hit a new milestone. In 2013 alone, cyber-criminals created and distributed 20 percent of all malware that has ever existed, with a total of 30 million new malicious strains in circulation, at an average of 82,000 per day.
Despite Trojans have continued to be the most common security threat, the company’s anti-malware laboratory has observed a wide variety of attacks, with a notable resurgence of ransomware (CryptoLocker being one of the nastiest examples).
The proportion of infected computers around the world was 31.53 percent, very similar to the 2012 figures.
 Besides offering an overview of the most significant events in the computer security field, the 2013 Annual Security Report also forecasts future trends for 2014. Much of 2014’s headlines will focus on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Android devices, which will continue to be exploited by attackers to steal users’ data and money. PandaLabs expects to see hundreds of thousands of new strains of Android-targeting malware in circulation. 2013 saw a large number of Android scams that used malicious ads in legitimate apps, and it has been estimated that last year alone cyber-criminals released more than two million new malware threats for Android.
Cyber-Espionage around the World
Some of the most important news stories of 2013 centered on the cyber-espionage activities conducted by governments around the world. China, a usual suspect when it comes to this type of activities, was overshadowed by the information leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who put this organization and the U.S. government in the eye of the storm.
Social media attacks also grabbed headlines. The number of account hijacking attempts rose spectacularly, affecting companies, celebrities and even politicians.Â
Malware StatisticsÂ
Looking at the types of malware that were created, PandaLabs identified Trojans as being the top threat, accounting for 71.11 percent of all new malware. There was a significant growth in the number of viruses in circulation, rising from 9.67 percent in 2012 to 13.30 percent in 2013. “This increase is mainly down to two particular virus families: Sality and Xpiro. The first virus family has been around a long time, whereas the second one is more recent and capable of infecting executable files on 32-bit and 64-bit systems”, said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs.Â
Distribution of Infections by Malware Type
When it comes to the number of infections caused by each malware category, data gathered by Panda Security’s Collective Intelligence platform indicates that three out of every four malware infections were caused by Trojans (78.97 percent), followed by viruses (6.89 percent) and worms (5.83 percent). “It seems that cyber-criminals managed to infect more computers with Trojans in 2013 than in previous years. In 2011, Trojans accounted for 66 percent of all computer infections, whereas this percentage rose to 76 percent in 2012. This growing trend was confirmed in 2013”, said Corrons. Â
Geographic Distribution of Malware Infections
Malware is a global plague, but some countries are affected more than others. The countries leading the list of most infections are China, Turkey and Ecuador, with 54.03, 42.15 and 40.35 percent of infected computers respectively. Nine of the ten least infected countries are in Europe with the only exception being Japan. The ranking is topped by Scandinavian countries:Â Sweden (20.28 percent of infected PCs), followed by Norway (21.13 percent), and Finland (21.22 percent).
The full report is available here.
Panda Security specializes in the development of endpoint security products and is part of the WatchGuard portfolio of IT security solutions. Initially focused on the development of antivirus software, the company has since expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services with technology for preventing cyber-crime.
