August 2008 was a nasty month for cyber-crime

August was the worst month on record for cyber-crime activity, according to managed security company, Network Box.  The company’s alert status, which measures the severity of Internet threats, was at four (out of a maximum five), indicating “critical threat’ status, through the entire month of August.
 
Virus activity peaked on 23rd August to the highest rate on record, with more than 14,600 new viruses seen on that day alone (with a monthly average of 4,500/day).  However, September’s big threat is gearing up to be from Trojan and Worm activity, with a significant rise in Trojans through early September, peaking on 12 September at 65 detected per day. Overall, threats increased by 51 per cent in August, from July.
 
Simon Heron, Internet Security Analyst, Network Box, says:

We expect to see a slight increase each month, but August this year was the single biggest jump in cyber-crime activity we’ve ever seen.  It could be that criminals target this time of year to make the most of people being on holiday, that includes IT managers and technical staff best able to deal with issues raised.”