Malware threats reach a new high

The No. 2 security software maker, McAfee Inc, said production of software code known as malware, which can harm computers and steal user passwords, has reached a new high in the first six months of 2010.

McAfee said total malware production continued to soar and 10 million new pieces of malicious code were catalogued.

McAfee also warned users of Apple's Mac computers, considered relatively safe from virus attacks, that they may also be subjected to malware attacks in the future.

For a variety of reasons, malware has rarely been a problem for Mac users. But according to McAfee, “those days might end soon”.

In April, McAfee Labs detected the Mac-based Trojan known as "OSX/HellRTS," which reads or modifies the contents of the clipboard or plays tricks on the user like opening and closing the CD drive.

After reaching a high point last year, the spread of spam messages has plateaued in the second quarter.

$1 trillion global loss from data theft

According to a study released by security technology firm McAfee Inc. , data theft and breaches from cybercrime may have cost businesses as much as $1 trillion globally in lost intellectual property and expenditures for repairing the damage last year.

McAfee made the projection based on responses to a survey of more than 800 chief information officers in the US, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, India, Brazil, and Dubai.

The respondents estimated that they lost data worth a total of $4.6 billion and spent about $600 million cleaning up after breaches.

The California-based company launched the survey after detecting a rapid acceleration of malicious software, last year.

According to McAfee Inc. - CEO David DeWalt, “This was a very insidious type of malware that was designed either to steal your data, steal your identity, steal your money, and in many cases the scale as well as the sophistication was very alarming”.

The survey of 800 companies in 8 countries showed that 80 percent of malware aimed to make a financial gain, in contrast to traditional viruses and worms which just had nuisance value.

Data lost accidentally or through theft can be expensive to replace and simultaneously, it can be damaging to a company's reputation or brand.