Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories

Free Switched iPhone app - try it now!

AOL Tech

AOL
MAIL

Switched

Desktop:
Windows
OS X
Linux

AV-Test year-end report shows exponential growth of malware

by Lee Mathews on January 27, 2011 at 12:00 PM

Now, we don't need fancy graphs to tell us that malware is all over the place -- but it's certainly eye-opening to see just how bad the problem has gotten. Unique samples gathered by AV-Test Labs this year nearly doubled in 2010 -- to almost 20 million, up from 12 million in 2009. That's no doubt due to the ever-morphing horde of rogue applications, which now include bogus system tune-up software in addition to the traditional fake antivirus programs we have come to despise.

Thankfully, security vendors have really stepped up their game in the last two years. Clearly they're going to need to keep churning out smarter, more adaptive, and just plain better apps to keep users protected.

Those of you who want to read the full report can download the Excel sheet, courtesy Sunbelt Software.

Tags: anti-malware, antimalware, antivirus, av-test, labs, malware, report, security, statistics, trojan, virus

Comments

octoberasianJan 27th 2011 12:56PM

Neutral

All I can is: DAAAMMMMMN!

It would explain why two of my friends have had to reformat/reinstall Windows since they couldn't remove malware off their PCs. No viruses at all.

I run the following on my computer:
- MSE
- Avast
- OpenDNS with Adware filtered

Dislike

Report

KualaBeeJan 27th 2011 4:18PM

Neutral

The stuff is depressing. I would like computers to be accessible to everyone, but malware is an essential threat to the average computer users.

After cleaning out some computer, I found that an effective free setup includes

1. Chrome + My Wot + disable all plugins except flash with a few exceptions
2. Hardwire Norton DNS into Routers (Clearcloud is another good alternative)
3. Install MSE + educate them how to update and run scan
4. Strongly discourage P2P programs like Limewire
5. Tell them that with computers it is better to be always "cautious" and "less and better (don't install programs, unless you really need them)"

This configuration, so far has been golden. It requires almost no maintenance and takes about 30 minutes to educate the user on how it works. It is not foolproof, but the several layers of preventive defense keeps most browser based malware out and MSE cleans up almost everything that manages to get through.

Dislike