The report - entitled 'The Business of Rogueware' - concludes there has been a tenfold increase in new rogueware samples over the past 12 months.

The report - which was authored by Luis Corrons and Sean-Paul Correll - predicts PandaLabs will record more than 637 000 new rogueware samples by the end of the current quarter, compared to just 22 534 in the same period last year.

The study also revealed that more new strains of rogueware were created in the first quarter of 2009 than in the whole of 2008.

Ten of the 200 different strains of rogueware accounted for just over 77% of the variants, Infosecurity notes.

As a result of their findings, the report authors are calling on IT security companies to admit "that the industry is not even close to winning this battle".

Interestingly - and in contrast to the reported opinions of a number of IT security experts - the authors suggest that cloud-based technologies may be the best way to counter rogueware.

PandaLabs says it is already taking an approach to counter the problem, claiming it can analyse - in real time - every new sample against 20 years of accumulated malware data to offer protection in minutes instead of days.

"Fortunately, other vendors are now following this trend, but cybercriminals will soon look to new channels for malware monetisation," says the report.

The information security firm estimates that around 35 million computers are infected with rogueware every month and that cybercriminals are earning over $34 million a month from their attacks.