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Spyware Makers Aiming For Enterprises |
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Thursday, 19 January 2006 |
Targeted attacks against organizations are supplanting spyware attacks against consumers as the most common malware threats on the Internet, according to a recent report from Panda software, Glendale, Calif.
“There is a new front to the war,” says Patrick Hinojosa, Panda chief technology officer. “The attacks went from script kiddy worms that were easy to create and targeted at filling up e-mails to targeted attempts against organizations.”
Companies holding a tremendous amount of customer data are the most commonly targeted victims, but not the only ones. The trend started in mid-2004, according to Hinojosa, and picked up steam after much-publicized security breaches at a pair of credit card service companies. Once a professional hacker learns of a type of attack that works, he’s likely to launch one himself.
“Then they know how it’s done; there are a lot of opportunists. There’s a growing threat vector,” Hinojosa explains, adding that the newer malware “isn’t flashy, it just tries to get the job done.” |