PC Infecting Malware up 600% this Year
August 21, 2009 – 11:55 am
Cases of PCs infected by malware have shot up 600% so far in 2009 according to a report from Panda Security — a web security firm. Of the eleven million cases the division has analyzed, over seven million has been malware in the form of trojans. If you’re not familiar with malware or trojan viruses, trojans are programs that disguise themselves as legitimate programs but give access of your computer to a hacker. Hence the name of the virus being named after the Trojan Horse.
The scary things about trojans is that they’ve been modified to record keystrokes. That means every time you type on your keyboard it records what letters you’ve typed and gives a report to the hacker. While some of what they get may be responses to your friends forwarding you email, some of it contains vital bank account and login information. For instance, if you type in www.yourbank.com then the next recorded keystrokes will most likely be your bank username followed by your bank password.
As our lifestyles adapt to the digital age we become increasingly dependent on our computers, usernames and passwords. They give us access to our bank accounts, credit cards, PayPal information and even our social media sites and email. Can you imagine sending all of that information to a thief? According to Panda Labs, over 3% of computer users already have. And that’s a figure that is only set to rise as hackers develop stronger malware and people continue to become increasingly dependent on computers.
Tags: Add new tag, digital, Hackers, keystrokes, Malware, malware on the rise, pc, record keystrokes, trojan, trojan horse, trojans, virus, viruses
One Response to “PC Infecting Malware up 600% this Year”
Malware is horrifying. It’s everywhere and preys most on those who don’t really know a thing about computers. Old people in particular are very much targeted with malware.
By LL coupon on Aug 21, 2009