When it comes to finding out about the top malware and spam trends, then the latest report from computer security giants McAfee, covering the first quarter of 2010, is a great place to start.

It discovered that top of the list for top malware and spam trends is a USB worm that has grabbed number one position for top malware worldwide. Furthermore, it concluded that spam trends differ considerably from country to country. What’s more, spam originating out of China and other Asian countries is on the increase. And, early 2010 has been marked by major events, such as earthquake news, which has led to many web searches being poisoned.

The top malware and spam trends report also concluded that most malicious URLs are hosted by US based servers.

High up in the top malware and spam trends report is the fact that the increasing use of removable devices, the majority being USB drives, is acting as a beacon for the most popular malware. Infections that are related to AutoRun held the top and third places. In fifth place are password stealing Trojans which include generic downloaders, gaming software and unwanted programmes, all designed to collect statistics anonymously.

Looking at spam, the report concluded that whilst rates are steady, the subjects differ from country to country. The report shows that the most significant amounts of diploma spam come out of China, South Korea and Vietnam. Diploma spam is all about buying bogus job qualifications in order to get jobs.

Whereas countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan – says the report – are known for high rates of Delivery Status Notification spam.

Mike Gallagher, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Global Threat Intelligence for McAfee, said:
“Our latest threat report verifies that trends in malware and spam continue to grow at our predicted rates. Previously emerging trends, such as AutoRun malware, are now at the forefront. We were also surprised to find some of geographic difference in spam related topics, such as the volume of diploma spam coming out of China.”

The top malware and spam trends report also discovered that Brazil, China, Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Romania and Thailand, do have a higher proportion of malware infections and spam. McAfee says this may be down to the rapid increase in computer and internet use that these countries have experienced in the last few years, and that as a result, they lack a proper appreciation of security awareness.

The top malware and spam trends report that hackers continue to make use of bad news events, such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, in order to bump their malicious sites up the site engine rankings.

As to where most of the new malicious URLs are hosted, the top malware and spam trends report concludes that 98% are hosted in the US, mainly because this is where most of the Web 2.0 services are provided.

So, when it comes to the top malware and spam trends report, use it to help keep yourself from the hackers out there.

Guest Article by Neil Camp