Malware Threats Skyrocketed in 2007

Last year saw an explosion in malware threats that has Symantec considering a new approach to Internet security—“whitelisting” legitimate computer code rather than blacklisting known threats. Of 1.1 million threats the company has discovered in over 25 years, it uncovered almost two-thirds of them in 2007, Computerworld reports. Symantec blames the escalation on the emergence of efficient malware-creating organizations.

The company says these organizations hire programmers to create lucrative phishing schemes, developing a sophisticated industry complete with specialization and outsourcing. "A group of specialized programmers can create a larger number of new threats than can a single malicious code author, bringing about economies of scale and therefore an increased return on investment," declares the Symantec report. (More malware stories.)