Commtouch Q3 Internet Threats Trend Report Highlights Increase in
Android Malware
MCLEAN, Virginia, October 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Commtouch® (NASDAQ: CTCH), a leading provider of
cloud-based solutions for security companies and service providers,
today released its October 2012 Commtouch Internet Trends
Report.
(Logo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120501/529254 )
Android Malware on the Rise
Android malware continues to grow - both in volume and in the
number of variants of Trojans and viruses. Proof of Android's
increasing popularity was a July attack that only targeted the
Google OS. The attack made use of compromised email accounts to
send simple one-link emails. In the past this method has been
used to distribute links to spam products or links to drive-by
malware downloads. In this case the malware URLs only worked
for Android devices.
The report also notes that the Grum spam botnet was taken down
in July, but that only a very short-lived reduction in spam and
zombie levels was observed.
Led by Avi Turiel, director of
threat research and market analysis, Commtouch's Internet Threat
Analysis Team regularly publishes related statistics within its
report. The quarterly report is compiled based on a comprehensive
analysis of billions of daily transactions handled by Commtouch's
GlobalView™ Cloud. The results for the third quarter of 2012
include:
- 87 billion - The average number of daily spam/phishing
emails sent
- 74 percent - Percent of all email that was spam
- 1.9 billion - The average number of daily emails sent
with attached malware
- Education - The Web site category most likely to contain
malware
- Pharmacy ads - The most popular spam topic, representing
41.2 percent of all spam
- India - The country
with the most zombies
Olympics Used in Advance Fee Fraud
419 (advance fee fraud) emails make up nearly 5 percent of
emails sent. The Olympic Games (July and August) proved to be a
popular theme for 419 scams during the quarter. Most scams promised
money from Olympics-related lotteries. Other emails offered
Olympic-related merchandise for large fees or offered recipients
interesting Olympic job-opportunities (in exchange for "processing"
fees).
In addition, October's report included a listing of:
Top 10 categories of Web sites most likely to be compromised
with malware
- Education
- Shopping
- Sports
- Business
- Entertainment
- Restaurants & Dining
- Travel
- Health & Medicine
- Streaming Media
- Leisure & Recreation
Top 10 most detected malware
- SWF-malform-1
- W32/Ramnit.Q
- W32/Conficker!Generic
- W32/Mabezat.A-2
- W32/Agent.PJ.gen!Eldorado
- CVE-2010-333
- W32/MyWeb.D@adw
- W32/Injector.A.gen!Eldorado
- W32/Mabezat.A-1
- W32/Tenga.3666
Worldwide zombie distribution
- India - 20.85%
- Brazil - 8.37%
- China - 7.52%
- Vietnam - 6.43%
- Russian Federation -
4.54%
- Germany - 3.15%
- Argentina - 2.98%
- Iran - 2.93%
- Peru - 2.83%
- Spain - 2.80%
- Pakistan - 2.36%
- Belarus - 2.03%
- Colombia - 1.86%
- Kazakhstan - 1.72%
- Romania - 1.62%
- Other - 28.0%
"Attacks that exclusively target Android clearly show that it's
becoming a more popular target," Turiel said. "Additionally, the
takedown of the Grum botnet shows us the error of prematurely
celebrating such events - the reduction in spam ultimately only
lasted a day or so. This illustrates the unfortunate resilience of
those that seek to continue utilizing zombies and sending out
spam."
To view the entire October 2012
Commtouch Internet Trends Report, visit:
http://www.commtouch.com/threat-report-oct-2012
About Commtouch
Commtouch® (NASDAQ: CTCH) safeguards the world's
leading security companies and service providers with cloud-based
Internet security services. Real-time threat intelligence from
Commtouch's GlobalView™ Cloud powers its Web filtering, email
security and antivirus solutions, protecting thousands of
organizations and hundreds of millions of users worldwide. Visit
http://www.commtouch.com.
- Blog: http://blog.commtouch.com/cafe
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/commtouch
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/commtouch
- Twitter: @Commtouch
Recurrent Pattern Detection, RPD, Zero-Hour and GlobalView
are trademarks, and Commtouch is a registered trademark of
Commtouch. U.S. Patent No. 6,330,590 is owned by Commtouch.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
Company Contact:
Ron Ela
Commtouch
+1-650-864-2291
+972-9-8636813 (Int'l)
ron.ela@commtouch.com
U.S. Investor Contact:
Christopher Chu
Grayling
+1-646-284-9400
commtouch@grayling.com
Israel Investor Relations Contact:
Iris Lubitch
EffectiveIR
+972-3-5664007
Iris@EffectiveIR.co.il
Commtouch Media Contact:
Matthew Zintel
Zintel Public Relations
+1-281-444-1590
matthew.zintel@zintelpr.com
SOURCE Commtouch