Much faster than expected, the number of malware detections on the web has reached the unfortunate 1 million benchmark. According to F-Secure, these malwares are growing at a rate of 2,300 new detections per day; the number of Trojans, backdoors, exploits and other threats has doubled since the end of 2007.

This recent explosion of malware is said to be a result of the industrialisation of virus production, that is the packing, encryption, and obfuscation of existing families of malware.

F-Secure explains criminals are adapting and utilising enterprise level systems and code within their operations. The complexity and quality of their IT infrastructure and systems continues to increase, providing them with the power to silently flood the Internet with their menace.

Malware as a service is another factor contributing to this benchmark, according to the company. Hackers sell their services to common criminals, who in turn launch DoD attacks, issue millions of phishing emails or engage in industrial espionage.

"Furthermore we have also seen the rise of polymorph viruses leading to the explosion of malware. Malware 2.0 changes its code every time the file is executed and launches DoD attacks on virus researchers. Storm, coined by F-Secure after subject lines playing on storms across Europe, is the prime example and is still active worldwide," the company said.
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