McAfee this week released the McAfee Threats Report: Second Quarter 2012, which found the biggest increase in malware samples detected in the last four years. McAfee Labs detected a 1.5 million increase in malware since Q1 2012 and identified new threats such as mobile “drive-by downloads,” the use of Twitter for control of mobile botnets and the appearance of mobile “ransomware.”
“Over the last quarter we have seen prime examples of malware that impacted consumers, businesses and critical infrastructure facilities,” said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs. “Attacks that we’ve traditionally seen on PCs are now making their way to other devices. For example, in Q2 we saw Flashback, which targeted Macintosh devices and techniques such as ransomware and drive-by downloads targeting mobile. This report highlights the need for protection on all devices that may be used to access the Internet.”
The report notes that as PC malware writers master their craft, they continue to transfer their skills to other popular consumer and business platforms, such as Google’s Android OS.