McAfee Threats Report: Third Quarter 2009

We continue to see rapid growth in malware. Web-based threats have reached new highs. Celebrity deaths and news events in general, serve as lures in scams, spams, and phishing attacks. Disasters especially attract a large audience of potential victims. Fraudulent security products continue to scam unsuspecting users out of their money. Chinese pharmacy spam runs were the rage for a month or two. Google searches lead to more and more threats. We also observed some very interesting events in the world of cybercrime. One of the most surprising recent trends is the rise in pirated movie and software sites.

Our researchers noticed 300 percent growth this quarter in websites that distribute pirated movies and software. Is this increase due to the economic downturn, or is technology at a point where it is easier to download feature-length movies on the day they become available in theaters?