Spyware

The U.S. Army has just invaded Iran, sparking World War III -- or at least that is what the latest Storm Worm spam campaign wants you to believe. Tennis fans at risk as hackers infect official tennis website with malicious code during this week's Wimbledon tournament. A cyber-crime syndicate is believed to have defrauded the South African government of more than £12.8m in a series of spyware frauds. A day after Damballa, an internet security company that focuses on targeted threats, announced the discovery of a new BotArmy named Kraken, the company released a follow-up statement to defend its findings after a number of security professionals questioned the validity of the claims. Russia has overtaken China as the world’s highest producer of spyware and viruses according to researchers at security vendor PC Tools.  

 

There's no question about it: the malware industry is booming. Every day, computer users are bombarded with news of severe data breaches, the rapid growth of online fraud and identity theft, and spyware that invades privacy and compromises security. Large-scale data breaches across both the private and public sectors dominated the news throughout the year. Rob Buckley looks back. SurfControl's CEO may be a relative newcomer to the infosec world, but she is already pursuing an aggressive growth policy for the security vendor, Paul Fisher reports.