Malware on a steep Incline during first quarter

Malware development shattered all records in the first quarter of 2014, with a number of over 15 million fresh samples, and over 160,000 new samples showing up daily, based on a report from cloud-based security solutions, Panda Security.

Smart phones and social networking sites remain popular targets for cyber-criminals. Within the mobile sector, the highly fragmented Google Android ecosystems remains especially susceptible to infection.

The report exposed a number of these involve signing up users to premium-rate SMS services without their knowledge, both through Google Play in addition to ads on Facebook, using the free texting service WhatsApp as the lure.

Countries in europe placed high among the least infected countries, specifically in Scandinavia, with the best figures coming from Sweden (21.03 percent) and Norway (21.14 percent), followed by Germany (24.18 percent)

Japan, which with a ratio of 24.21 percent, was the only non-European country in the top 10 of the list. China was once again the country prone to the most infections, with a rate of 52.36 percent, followed by Turkey with 43.59 percent and Peru close behind with 42.14 percent. The report also noted China is the only country in the world with an infection rate over 50 percent.

Although Spain is not in the top 10 of this ranking, it is still above the global average with 33.57 percent. The global infection rate during the first three months of 2014 was 32.77 percent, PandaLabs reported. – See more at

“Over these months, levels of cyber-crime have continued to rise. In fact, we have witnessed some of the biggest data thefts since the creation of the Internet, with millions of users affected,” Luis Corrons, a security specialist at PandaLabs, said in a statement.

This is only the beginning, as new technology is introduced and utilized in every aspect of our lives, this will only continue to unveil new attack vectors that can be exploited and profited from by cyber criminals.