The Internet environment is getting more dangerous, with a significant increase in the number of Trojan-horse programs and phishing attacks posing a serious risk to privacy, according to Symantec Corp's latest security report.
The report, released yesterday, is based on the anti-virus software maker's monitoring of online activities from July 1 to Dec. 31 last year.
Symantec said that malicious code with the purpose of uncovering confidential information has shown a marked increase, representing 54 percent of the top 50 samples of malicious code detected by the company, up from 44 percent in the first six months of last year and 36 percent in the second half of 2003.
"Instead of paralyzing computers and networks just to make a name for themselves, hackers now pursue financial profits from their hacking activities," Patrick Wang (
Phishing attacks, a method used to trick Internet users into revealing confidential information such as passwords, credit card numbers and other financial information, is also increasing, the report said.
By the end of last December, Symantec blocked an average of 33 million phishing attempts per week, up from an average of 9 million per week last July -- an increase of more than 366 percent, the report said.
Phishing attacks are also becoming more sophisticated, Wang said. As an example, he cited the Troj/BankAsh-A worm, which remains dormant until the user of an infected computer tries to access certain British online banks, such as Barclays, Cahoot, Halifax or HSBC. The user is then redirected to a false site which looks like the real one.
Web applications are popular targets among hackers, because they are widely used and may allow attackers to circumvent traditional perimeter security measures such as firewalls, the report said.
As more and more mobile devices such as smart phones are making use of Web applications, the problem could become even more serious, Wang said.
He suggested that users apply patches to their operating system and anti-virus software as soon as they are released.
Users of peer-to-peer filesharing and instant messaging software should also scan downloaded files before opening them. Hackers' use of these vectors to spread viruses such as Netsky, Beagle and Mydoom has increased by 39 percent in the second half of last year compared with the first half of the year, the report said.
Other threats to Internet security include spyware, adware and spam. Users should read through any authorization agreement before downloading software, as some types of spyware and adware are installed along with other software, Wang said.
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