Some 20 million new pieces of malware were created in the third quarter of 2014, amounting to over 227,000 each day, according to new data from Panda Security.
The Spanish AV vendor’s latest quarterly report found that the daily new malware count actually stood at a staggering 227,747, with trojans the most common type – accounting for 78% of all malware.
In second place, some distance behind, came viruses with just shy of 9%, followed by worms (4%).
When it comes to infections, trojans once again took the number one spot, accounting for 75% of the total, up from 63% the previous quarter, Panda said in a blog post.
Potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) were in second place, responsible for 14.5% of all infections, down from the second quarter figure of 25%. Next came adware/spyware (7%), followed by worms (2%) and viruses (1.5%).
Unsurprisingly, China still has the highest infection rate globally. Almost 50% of computers in the Middle Kingdom contain malware, according to the stats.
Next came Peru (42%) and Bolivia (42%).
Panda claimed that Asian and Latin American countries dominated the rankings of nations with the most infections, while Europe had the least, with nine in the top ten most ‘secure’ countries.
Norway topped that list with an infection rate of just 23%, followed by Sweden (23.4%) and Japan (24%) – which was the only non-European country in that top ten.
Spain was a notable absentee, with an infection rate of 38%, putting it above the global average, Panda said.
The high number of PC infections in China might account for its regular position at the top of the countries which account for the majority of global attack traffic.
It came second after the US, accounting for 20% of all DDoS attacks observed by Akamai, according to the firm’s Q3 State of the Internet report.