Category Archives: Incident Response

Summary of 2013 Malware Development

HackSurfer just released a summary on malware development for 2013 based on the formal report from Panda Labs. Here are some of the key points from the summary:

  • Almost 32% of computers across the world found infected with malware.
  • There were 82,000 different malware strains that emerged in 2013.
  • Android Platforms remained the primary target for cyber criminals with nearly two million android based malware being created in the year of 2013.
  • Trojans were the biggest contributor in 2013 with 71.11% of all new malware.
  • The growth of new malware strains rose to 13.3% versus 9.67% in 2012 year.
  • China remained the most infected country in 2013 with 54.0% ratio.
  • Sweden was on the last position with least malware-infected countries.
  • 20% of all malware were created in the year of 2013.
  • The most popular virus families were Sality and Xpiro.
  • 30 million new malware variants were created in 2013.

2014 Prediction about Imminent Threats:

  • New malware variants can hit the market in 2014 that will compel to implement strong security parameters in organizations.
  • Java vulnerability will remain in 2014 due to countless security flaws and its high usage in the world.
  • Users will fall victim to cyber culprits due to social engineering techniques.
  • Android platform will remain on the top in malware spreading.
  • Ransomware malware will be on the top position in 2014 than Trojans and Botnets.
  • Corporate culture has to think beyond traditional antivirus product.
  • Hackers can target internet-connected device (Internet of Things) for attack purpose.

Hotels May Become New Data Breach Point

A data breach appears to have hit White Lodging, a firm which manages hotel franchises for the Marriott, Hilton and Starwood Hotel chains. As reported by Brian Krebs, The breach appears to have struck computers in the restaurants and gift shops of a number of hotels managed by the company over a time period extending from March 2013 until the end of the year, collecting credit card information. Krebs was alerted to the breach by a number of fraud specialists working in banking who were dealing with the fallout of the credit card frauds.