Nearly one in three PCs - infected with malware

PandaLabs has published a report on viral activity, including the analysis of events and happenings in the field of IT-security over the past year. According to the report, 31.98% of all scanned computers worldwide contain malicious software. The total number of malware samples in the database PandaLabs has reached about 125 million, PandaLabs researchers estimate that at least 27 million new malware samples was established only in 2012. Three quarters of new malware samples created in 2012, were Trojans.

These figures represent an opportunity for cybercriminals automate the creation of new variants of malicious programs, and also suggest that on average, a day created 74 thousand new threats.

In 2012, the Trojans dominated among all the other threats, more than ever before. Three quarters of the infections were caused by malicious Trojans (76.56%), which is more than 3% compared with 2011. One reason for this growth is the growth of "popularity" set of exploits, such as the Black Hole, which can use a variety of system vulnerabilities to automatically infect computers without user intervention. Viruses are the second (8%), while the worms fell to third place with 6.44% of all infections.


Among the most infected countries in the lead in China, South Korea and Taiwan with 54.89%, 54.15% and 42.14%, respectively, of infected computers. But there is good news: the proportion of infected computers around the world has decreased significantly. For example, the number of infected computers in China has fallen from 56% in 2011 to 54.89% in 2012, and in Taiwan, the reduction was even more pronounced - from 52% to 42.14%.

Countries with the lowest level of infection - Sweden (20.25% of infected PCs), Switzerland (20.35%) and Norway (21.03%).

In 2012, the increase in the number of threats to mobile phones and attacks on social networks

In addition to the review of the most significant developments in the field of computer security in 2012, the report also contains projections of future trends for 2013. Cyber ​​crime and attacks on social networking sites in 2012 remain relevant in 2013. Particular attention should be paid to protecting networks against security vulnerabilities of operating systems and applications, the use of which is becoming more common on the part of cybercriminals and national security services in order to hide hacking systems. Android users face a growing number of attacks by cybercriminals. Cyber ​​espionage and cyber warfare will increasingly assert itself in 2013, exacerbating the problem in the world of computer security.