We saw in 2008 and 2009 how worms came back to prominence, thanks to the wide spread of Conficker and its variants. A timely reminder that the threat is still high was given last week, when Google revealed a highly sophisticated series of cyberattacks originating from China that stole some of its intellectual property and affected about 30 other Silicon Valley companies.

This recent attack shows how malicious software has evolved into an advanced weapon that can specifically target companies – even companies as advanced as Google – with the aim of gaining a financial or competitive advantage.

Attackers will try any method available to seed the malware onto a company network, including infecting USB flash drives and distributing them at events, or “losing” them in car parks for unwitting employees to find. That’s why latest-generation secure flash drives, such as our own Cruzer Enterprise range, can also feature onboard anti-malware scanning to nullify this threat.

A new large-scale malware outbreak is currently believed to have infected at least 50 of America’s Fortune 100 companies.

Over 70 variants of the malware, known as Mariposa, have been identified, with complex methods of action including email address harvesting, injecting code into known system processes, and downloading further malware onto corporate computers and networks. 

Like Conficker, this new malware can spread by multiple mechanisms, including running automatically from USB flash drives, via an Internet-based update module, and across the MSN Messenger chat network.

Also like Conficker, the exact motivation or the people behind the threat are not known.  But it’s worth checking your AV signatures are fully updated – and we would recommend the use of secure USB drives with onboard anti-malware protection, too.

As you may have seen in the last week or so, the latest version of Apple’s Macintosh OS, known as Snow Leopard, includes for the first time features to detect and warn users about some types of malware.

However, a number of external parties have tested these features, and found that they will only detect the specific malware if it’s encountered via a Web browser.  The features will not detect malware if it is carried and inserted into the machine via a removable drive, such as a USB flash drive.

Although Apple has said for many years that Mac users don’t really need to worry about malware, the threat landscape is constantly changing.  So Mac users should be careful about possible infections from any source, whether on the web or by removable media.

Our anti-virus partner McAfee has released its Q2 Threats Report (PDF at link), and like the company’s Q1 report from earlier this year, it is sobering reading. 

The report says that spam volumes have increased by 140% since March, driven by major growth in botnet activity.  14 million new computers became parts of botnets in Q2 (that’s more than 150,000 per day), an increase of 16% over the previous quarter.

McAfee also reported growth in password-stealing Trojans, which is more proof that making money from illegal activity on the Internet is now a focus for criminal gangs.

The company also reported a surge in so-called Auto-Run malware, which exploits Windows’ Auto-Run capabilities and is most commonly spread via USB and portable devices.  As you’ll know, our Cruzer Enterprise with onboard McAfee AV can prevent the spread of malware via this vector, helping to protect corporate networks against this fast-emerging threat.

The number of malware attacks rose by more than 200% in 2008, according to the latest EMEA Internet Security Threat Report from security vendor, Symantec.

During the course of the year, the company reported over 1.6 million new threats, making 2008 one of the worst ever in the anti-virus sector.  Trojan horses were the most common form of malware, accounting for 66% of the top potential infections in EMEA, as malware authors attempted to steal financial and other confidential data.

And one of the key attack vectors that the company warns will be used increasingly in 2009 and 2010 is USB memory sticks and other USB storage devices.  This follows the recent Conficker outbreak, which successfully exploited USB media to spread itself.  Malware experts agree that further worms will be found that can use USB drives to infect PCs and networks.

Yet again, the message is clear:  ensure your USB thumb drives are secured against malware risks.  Or use secure flash drives with onboard antivirus scanning, such as our Cruzer Enterprise drives, to stop USB-borne infections in their tracks.