Targeted, DIY Malware Here to Stay: Symantec

An influx of fairly affordable do-it-yourself malware toolkits combined with a new breed of cybercriminals increasingly able to suss out information from social networking sites is making life much more difficult for Internet users and the security professionals responsible for protecting corporate data.

Symantec’s latest comprehensive review of malware trends and tactics reveals that hackers are using more selective and insidious methods to pry their way into personal banking accounts, corporate data networks and critical government infrastructure for their own (or others’) gain.

Long gone are the days of simply dealing with an avalanche of largely benign spam attacks. Now cyber crooks are loading up for bear, ripping off usernames, passwords and other supposedly sacred log-in data to orchestrate data and asset theft on a grand scale.

eSecurity Planet takes a closer look at what Symantec and other security software vendors already know and, more important, the uncertainty of what they know they should know but have yet to discover.


Symantec’s annual Internet Security Threat Report should give enterprise customers and consumers plenty of cause for concern considering that more and more people are actively participating in cybercrime and their efforts are becoming more targeted and disruptive than ever.

“Attackers have evolved from simple scams to highly sophisticated espionage campaigns targeting some of the world’s largest corporations and government entities,” Symantec’s Stephen Trilling, said in the report. “The scale of these attacks and the fact that they originate from across the world, makes this a truly international problem requiring the cooperation of both the private sector and world governments.”



Read the full story at eSecurity Planet:


Cybercrime Increases in Scale, Sophistication: Symantec

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