Report: ID fraud malware infecting PCs at increasing rates

More than 10 million Internet users worldwide were hit with identity fraud-related malware last year, according to a new estimate from Panda Security.

The number of computers infected with active programs designed to steal personally identifiable or financial information that can be used for identity fraud, such as banker Trojans for stealing bank account information, rose by 800 percent from the first half of the year to the second half, the study found.

Of the 67 million computers that PandaLabs analyzed in 2008 for the study, 35 percent of those infected had up-to-date antivirus software installed. The number of users who have been actively exposed to identity fraud malware is about 1 percent of the worldwide population of Internet users, according to the study.

The researchers predict that the infection rate will increase by 336 percent per month throughout this year, based on the trend of the previous 14 months.

Researchers predict that the infection rate will increase by 336 percent per month throughout this year.

(Credit: Panda Security)

[jhawk95]

And funny that, not one of them was a Mac!

[n3td3v]

Hackers generally only target the most popular OS, so by urging folks to move to Mac's isn't a good move I suspect.

[blusky08]

True.
If Apple ever drops the prices significantly though, the party is over for Mac owners.

[Perry_Clease]

Did you have to bring that up! Now we have people commenting on the falsehood of hackers targeting the most popular OS.

[Dalkorian]

Um, I'm usually one of the first people to trash M$ for their lousy excuse for security, but notice this article mentioned trojans specifically. One exploit recently used a JavaScript flaw in Adobe Acrobat/Reader to install a trojan AND THAT FLAW WAS CROSS PLATFORM, meaning even us Mac users were vulnerable (I think I caught an article that Adobe patched that flaw this week, but haven't read it yet - gotta love tabbed browsing!)

Bottom line, though Mac users are pretty safe against the typical virus or worm (nothing is perfect though, everything is hackable with enough determination!), malware like trojans that you install yourself are still a danger (in fact by far the biggest danger with OS X). SAFER DOES NOT MEAN SAFE - UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE!

Oh, and I'm still amazed that winblows apologists are willing to show their total ignorance and pull out that market share garbage argument. Explain why there were viruses for Apple's "classic" OS 9 and previous, yet NONE FOR OS X. I dare you. Go ahead, try to explain away why Apple's OS hasn't had any viruses in 9 years (the life of OS X so far, through all it's incarnations, improvements and changes), yet their market share has increased. Explain why anyone would ever have bothered with an OS 9 virus. Was Apple's market share that much larger back then? (Hint: NO)

[nitespark]

@ Dalkorian
http://www.securemac.com http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36688/108/
sorry to burst your bubble, but your the one that has an ignorant mindset. A lot of exploits come from safari , so i think it's time most of you mac uses who think OS X is bulletproof pull your heads from the out of the sand.

Dalkorian. you said "nothing is perfect though, everything is hackable with enough determination". As evidence you may remember that Firefox was touted as the 'safest' browser at the time. I read recently that it was the least secure BUT they were the quickest at putting out fixes. As you say, nothing in software is totally secure - given time the bad guys will succeed. How long they succeed is up to the developers and the endusers. Maybe the endusers should learn to be a little more circumspect at what they click on or accept or lose the curiosity factor.

[kshauret]

Interesting statistics, but I find it lacking in its analysis of how to improve the situation or what to do overall for protection against the trend.

[ringaround]

Exactly. I clicked to read the article hoping to gain additional, obviously critical information, and found nothing to help me to better protect myself.

[davismccarn]

OS X has had numerous virus attacks and vulnerabilities over the years and, especially since the adoption of Intel processors in 2006 plus the increase in market share, is, in truth, just as vulnerable as any Windows system. http://www.securemac.com/ has a list of some of the notable viruses over the years.
http://www.clamxav.com/ is, in my humble opinion, a critical "must have" for all OS X users as it is only a matter of time before the headline reads "75% of Mac's striken by computer virus"
This is even more likely as most of the truly nasty attacks of late utilized Flash Player, JavaScript, or some other, third party app such as Acrobat Reader as their entry point and, if they become clever enough to embed x86 machine language, everybody better watch out!

[howiem]

Gee, do yo? suppose that those who got infected should be using up to date anti-spyware programs to scan?