For the first time in the history of the Internet we are seeing the establishment of a "virtual" mafia of organized criminals taking advantage of the anonymous nature of the Internet.
The unsettling reality is that in today's world the rate of infected users is occurring faster and in greater volume than traditional security companies can detect and respond to.
According to the recent quarterly report provided by PandaLabs, the predominant category of malware detected is Trojans (over 75 percent). Trojans are comprised of password stealers, worms, banker Trojans, and various other forms of malicious code.
The study focused on two very real populations: 1.5 million consumers; and another study against 2,000+ companies. The end result was an astonishing rate of infection - and even though both groups believed they were protected -
consumers experienced a 22 percent active infection rate and even more astonishing, 72 percent of those on the corporate side were infected.
The malware landscape has changed so quickly that many consumers and companies alike are only just now realizing that the security measures of the past are no longer effective against the new and emerging breed of highly sophisticated malware.
Research indicates that the percentage of networks that are infected is much larger than perceived, and certainly far greater than acceptable.
