Online security specialist Symantec Corporation, creator of virus stopper Norton this past week published “Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume XIII” which reports the world is now home to more than one million malicious viruses, worms and Trojans — or malware as they are referred to.
The report also states online users can increasingly be infected simply by visiting everyday Web sites.
Overall, in 2007, Symantec detected 711,912 new threats compared to 125,243 in 2006 - an increase of 468 percent; this brings the total number of malicious code threats detected by Symantec to 1,122,311 as of the end of 2007.
The report is derived from data collected by millions of Internet sensors, first-hand research and active monitoring of hacker communications and provides a global view of the state of Internet security.
In the past, users had to visit intentionally malicious sites or click on malicious email attachments to become a victim of a security threat. Today, hackers are compromising legitimate Web sites and using them as a distribution medium to attack home and enterprise computers. Symantec noticed that attackers are particularly targeting sites that are likely to be trusted by end users, such as social networking sites.
