Fortinet releases December Threatscape Report

Fortinet has announced its December 2009 Threatscape report. The report shows that while there was a general slowdown in malware activity as compared to the previous three reporting periods, one malware variant bucked the trend to deliver more than 66 per cent of total malware activity for the month.

The Bredolab downloader took advantage of the expected surge in holiday online shopping by loading ZBot variants onto infected machines. On the exploit front, MS08-067 showed up as the most actively targeted in this reporting period. December also proved to be a busy time for vulnerabilities and zero-day attacks with 157 new vulnerabilities detected, a third of which were in active attack mode.

“The growth in cybercriminal activity we observed in 2009 will continue with force in 2010. With more digital convergence undoubtedly to occur in 2010, there will be a wealth of opportunity for cybercriminals: There is an infinite number of victims to target, the infrastructure is already in place along with development resources, and there are ample new delivery vehicles such as social media networks to help facilitate cybercriminal activities,” said Derek Manky, Project Manager, Cyber Security and Threat Research, Fortinet. “Digesting all of this, it becomes apparent that we are in for a wild ride in 2010 – all elements are positioned for a perfect storm in cyberspace.”

FortiGuard Labs compiled threat statistics and trends for December based on data collected from FortiGate network security appliances and intelligence systems in production worldwide. Customers who use Fortinet’s FortiGuard Subscription Services should already be protected against the threats outlined in this report.