Huge rise in data-stealing Trojans

The economic downturn is fuelling a massive surge in online crime, according to Scansafe.

In its annual Global Threat Report, the security company revealed an explosive growth in malware throughout 2008 and in particular Trojans designed to steal data, which were up by 1,559 per cent from 2007.

October and November 2008 showed the highest levels of web malware but they also showed a heavy saturation of data-theft Trojans.

"Cybercriminals in 2008 have shown a change of intent and are now focused on the ongoing targeting and harvesting of sensitive data. Most of the malware delivered through the web provides remote customization and configurability, enabling criminal attackers to target specific data and to remotely manage how that data is obtained. For home users, gaming credentials or credit card numbers could be at risk," the report said.

Trusted websites pose the greatest threat to internet users, as criminals continue to have success from drive-by download attacks as a means of infecting people’s PCs.

A drive-by download is a program that is automatically downloaded to a person’s PC without their permission, or even their knowledge, when they visit a website.

People were always advised to be careful when visiting unknown or pornographic sites because of this. However, hackers are able to exploit security flaws to embed malicious software into many legitimate and trusted websites.

In April 2008, Scansafe counted in excess of 780,000 malicious web pages from just five types of web commerce, such as online retailing. Now such sites should be seen as posing some of the greatest risks to web surfers, the company said.

Mary Landesman, senior security researcher for Scansafe, said: "Today’s malware is all about stealing and harvesting data. Cybercriminals have moved away from defacing sites or merely designing malware as a prank, and it is now created with commercial and criminal intent.

"Online crime has become a lucrative business and both commercial and personal data fetch a significant sum on black markets."