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Economic Crisis Fueling Increased Malware Attacks

by Dan Reilly on October 24, 2008 at 01:20 PM



We reported recently that phishing and spam scams are surging due to the economic crisis, as scammers look to prey on people's stress. Not to be outdone, malware attacks are increasing too, most likely because the writers are feeling the brunt of the collapse just like any other industry.

As Ars Technica reports, the more a stock dropped in a day, the more the company in question was attacked with malware. The idea is that IT workers are more distracted than normal while watching their company go in the tank, leaving their systems more vulnerable.

Panda Labs says that more and more malware is being released, especially in the form of fake antivirus programs. This is because fewer people are likely to fall for the normal phishing scams (like cheap medicine or porn) -- not because they're getting any smarter, but because they're tightening their budgets. No matter what, be even more skeptical about anything you see online that's even remotely suspicious. And if you want a good free anti-virus program, check out the free version of AVG Anti-Virus or the free trial versions of these other legit anti-virus offerings. [Source: Ars Technica]

Tags: economic crisis, EconomicCrisis, malware, safety, scammers, security, spam, virus

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