It's 'all about the money' with hackers

2010-01-11

Hackers are not interested in fame any more, they are concerned with money, it has been claimed.

Javier Merchan from Panda Security said that cybercriminals are coming up with increasing amounts of samples so they can infect as many users as possible.

They are also doing this to avoid anti-virus detections, he explained, saying that the amount of malware in circulation will continue to rise "exponentially".

Talking about what he expects to see in 2010, Mr Merchan commented: "Once again malware will be designed almost exclusively for financial gain and we can expect to see many new fake anti-viruses - rogueware, bots and banker Trojans."

He added that the improved speed provided by cloud-based technologies will force malware creators to create even more threats so they can evade detection and elimination.

Mr Merchan's comments come after PandaLabs' Annual Malware Report revealed that 25 million new strains of malware were created in just a year.

This is striking when compared to the combined total of 15 million across the rest of Panda Security's 20-year history.

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