G DATA Software AG: Antivirus, Virenschutz, Virenscanner, Internet Security

Bochum (German), 5th September 2008 - The malware industry made it clear last month that annual vacations are not part of its business plans. In August, cyber criminals once again unleashed a flood of malware onto PC users: Nearly 100,000 new malware programs were brought into circulation worldwide over the past month. On average, 132 malware programs rained down on Windows users every hour. Remaining number one by far amongst the malware families was the Trojan horse, which accounted for nearly 27 % of the total. In second place, in the inglorious top five for last month, were backdoors, which accounted for 20.5 percent. The main concern of the online criminals: theft of user data and the integration of infected PCs into botnets. Consequently, according to the estimations of Ralf Benzmüller, manager of G DATA Security Labs, the threshold of one million could actually be cracked this year.

The malware industry operates in international networks and doesn‘t take

summer holidays; precisely that was demonstrated by the malware figures for the past few months. As already forecast in the 2008 half-year malware report, G DATA Security Labs are expecting a further increase in the coming months. "The magic limit of more than one million malware programs could really be breached by the end of the year. We have already had to deal with more than half a million new malware programs in 2008. From experience, the months with the greatest amount of malware occur in the last quarter of the year. So we should get ready for a hot malware autumn and winter for 2008," says Ralf Benzmüller, manager of G DATA Security Labs.

Malware Top Five August 2008:







In August 2008, online criminals published more than 98,500 new malware programs - meaning that 3178 new malware programs per day rained down over Windows users on average. In the first eight months of this year, the eCrime society managed to bring an almost unbelievable total of nearly 527,000 new malware programs into circulation; four times as much malware as in the whole of last year.

Criminals focus on personal data
So what are the criminals after? For online gangs, the theft and trading of data is a lucrative business. While it was primarily credit card information and online banking data in the past, money can be made from almost any data nowadays. "Password stealers for online games clearly lead the field in malware programs. Moreover, according to our estimation, a regular trade in marketing-relevant data is flourishing on the Internet. Occupying the first place here is access data for Internet services and bank accounts, credit card information, telephone numbers or email addresses. These are sold by the receivers of stolen data abroad and used by illegitimate suppliers for direct marketing purposes," states G DATA Security expert Ralf Benzmüller.

Filtered data is more expensiveAccording to in-depth research by G DATA Security Labs, there is a serious price war taking place amongst traders in stolen data. For unchecked mass data, the prices are falling and several hundred megabytes of unsorted data can be obtained for less than 50 Euros on the black market. The offered data packages contained access data to email accounts, telephone numbers, PayPal accounts or online banking. Sorted and validated data is allocated to a corresponding higher price range and interested purchasers can select the data based on the victim’s place of residence, for example.

The current price for credit card information has fallen considerably and is currently about 1 Euro for a single data record.

About the company
G DATA is an Internet security specialist and virus protection pioneer. The product range comprises security solutions for end customers as well as medium to large-sized companies.

It is now more than 20 years since G DATA developed the first anti-virus program.

Over the last five years, G DATA has won more national and international tests and awards than any other European security provider.

G DATA InternetSecurity has already come top in the Stiftung Warentest (German consumer safety group) tests twice in a row. When it comes to quality, G DATA is a world leader, combining the world’s best security technologies in its products. Examples of this are its DoubleScan technology with two independent virus scanners and the OutbreakShield instant protection. The G DATA

security product range comprises security solutions for end customers as well as medium to large-sized companies.

G DATA security solutions are available in the USA, Japan, Germany, England, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Poland, Korea, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Hungary and Luxembourg. The company headquarters are in Bochum (Germany).