Microsoft Security Intelligence Report v10

Microsoft recently released Microsoft Security Intelligence Report v10. The report aggregates relevant computer and network security data from more than 600 million PCs across 117 countries–providing a comprehensive look at the threat landscape.

A Microsoft On The Issues blog posts describes some of the key findings of Microsoft SIR v10:

· Rogue Security Software – Rogue security software was detected and blocked on almost 19 million systems in 2010, and the top five families were responsible for approximately 13 million of these detections.

· Phishing – Phishing using social networking as the lure increased 1,200 percent – from a low of 8.3 percent of all phishing in January to a high of 84.5 percent in December 2010. Phishing that targeted online gaming sites reached a high of 16.7 percent of all phishing in June.

· Adware – Global detections of adware when surfing websites increased 70 percent from the second quarter to the fourth quarter of 2010. This increase was almost completely caused by the detection of a pair of new Adware families, JS/Pornpop and Win32/ClickPotato, which are the two most prevalent malware in many countries.

A rapidly increasing number of Mac users are learning just how pervasive the rogue AV threat is as well. Mac Defender has been plaguing Mac OS X to the extent that Apple finally had to admit it is an issue and commit to delivering a fix for Macs to detect and prevent the threat.