Who Develops Malware and Where Does it Come From?

Malware, short for malicious software, seems to be more and more prevalent, assaulting users via social networking sites, email and infected web pages.  However, we rarely touch on where it comes from and who develops it from a business perspective. The ‘Annual Global Threat Report 2009’ written by ScanSafe provides some insight into these questions.

Security researcher Mary Landesman some thoughts on the matter from a business perspective rather than the more typical technical one. She sees the issue of malware as a business venture and says that security professionals need to begin viewing the problem in that light.

“To approach today“™s security challenges as a malware problem is to completely miss the bigger picture ““ it is a criminally run sophisticated e-business network intent on gathering intellectual and corporate assets,” she writes. “To approach today“™s security challenges as a malware problem is to completely miss the bigger picture ““ it is a criminally run sophisticated e-business network intent on gathering intellectual and corporate assets.”

“To fully combat today“™s threats, we must recognize its 21st century purpose ““ criminal data and asset-targeting designed to achieve global economic advantage,” Landesman writes.

The report found that malicious PDF files accounted for over 80 percent of total exploits by the 4th quarter of 2009.

Ultimately, Landesman cautions “To confront the challenges of the coming years, we must reposition our thinking to match the new reality.”