Malware Trends: 70% Profit-Driven Threats With Spyware Dominance

Malicious software coded by cyber criminals for financial gain accounted for some 70 percent of all malware detected during the first quarter of 2006, according to a report released today. According to a new study from anti-virus developer Panda Software, the new malware dynamic saw financial profit become malicious software creators' top priority. Of all malware detected by the company's free online scanner, about 40 percent was spyware. Some 17 percent of the total was made up by trojans, including banker trojans that steal confidential data related to bank services and "droppers" or "downloaders" that download malicious applications onto systems.

An additional eight percent was made up of dialers, malicious code that dials up premium-rate numbers without users' knowledge. Bots, a type of malware used in an elaborate business model involving the sale or rental of networks of infected computers, accounted for four percent of the total. Traditional email worms, which were recently a major internet threat, made up only four percent of the total.

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