July to September saw 21 million new threats emerge globally, bucking the usual trend in summer of a slowdown in activity, according to Panda Security.
The Spanish-headquartered firm’s PandaLabs report for Q3 2015 claimed a whopping 230,000 new malware samples were seen every day on average during the period.
Trojans were by far the most common, accounting for 69% of all malware. Traditional viruses were the next most common, accounting for 11%, followed by worms (6%), and adware/spyware (5%).
In the third quarter trojans were even more prolific, accounting for nearly 78% of all malware.
Once again, Europe was the safest region globally, with nine countries on the top 10 list of lowest infection rates. Norway (20%), Sweden (21%) and Japan (23%) comprised the top three with Switzerland (23%) and the UK (24%) rounding out the top five.
The worldwide infection rate was 32%, with China (45%) once again topping the list, followed by Turkey (43%), Peru (41%), Russia (38%) and Taiwan (38%).
As a result, Asia and Latin America were pegged as the worst when it came to infection rates during the period.
Panda Security highlighted the Ashley Madison and Hacking Team attacks as two of the biggest stories of the quarter, and there was a mention for Adobe Flash, which is fast becoming a major security vulnerability for firms in its own right.
Panda claimed the popular software is “facing its demise soon”—pointing to the fact that iOS doesn’t allow it to be run and during Q3, Google followed suit by banning it from Android and Chrome. Amazon has also announced a ban on Flash ads on its site.
“The decision of major providers to not allow Adobe Flash to run in their environments shows a shift away from media delivery through this historically insecure method,” PandaLabs technical director Luis Corrons told Infosecurity.
“Panda Security always recommends that users update their programs with the latest patches to be as secure as possible. Combined with protection programs and user knowledge this forms the basics of a security system.”
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