There is a perception in the market that cybercriminals are
the only ones responsible for creating malware – for their own financial gain.
While this may have been the case some years back, today, malware is not just
being created by cybercriminals! This is a topic that ESET has been and will be
discussing in detail.
While cybercriminals are the main party
responsible for the creation of malicious malware attacks, what has been
discovered is that Nation States around the world started using trojans,
viruses and worms as early as 5 years ago.”
During the past few years, security experts
discovered many new major malicious programmes that were used in
cyber warfare operations. These included Stuxnet, Flame, Red October,Gauss and miniFlame. While Flame was the largest and most
sophisticated of the cyber-espionage programmes, its longevity was its most
prominent characteristic. Being at least a five-year-old project, Flame was an
example of a complex malicious programme that could exist undetected for an
extended amount of time while collecting massive amounts of data and sensitive
information from its victims.
The reality here is that these attacks
discovered are just the tip of the iceberg, as with each discovery, security
researchers have been amazed by how complex these tools are getting and to the
lengths the attackers are willing to go to get the information that they want.
ESET security experts expect more countries to develop
their own cyber programmes for the purposes of cyber-espionage and cyber-sabotage.
What is critical to note is that these attacks, as well as other new malware,
which is being generated daily will affect not only government institutions,
but also businesses. So in an aim to continue to educate the corporate market
on the serious threat of cyber activity on an organisation,
According to the 2013 Global Corporate IT Security Risks
survey conducted by analytical authority B2B International most companies greatly underestimate the number of new malicious programmes
appearing daily, and only 6% recognise the true scale of the threat. Through the research, experts identified that approximately 200,000
new malware samples appear around the world each day, yet when asked to
estimate this figure, in South Africa, the survey indicated that 28% of
respondents estimated that only 100 – 1000 new malware samples appear every
day.”
“This fact reiterates the need for creating awareness among
businesses about security threats, a role that ESET has taken on board and
makes a priority – to allow businesses to take precautionary action, invest in
the right security measures, protect corporate IT infrastructures and avoid
falling victim, especially as such malware and threats are not going away any
time soon.
