F-Secure Corporation’s summary of virus, worm and malware activity for the second half of 2005 showed the virus count continued to rise with alarming force, increasing from 110,000 to approximately 150,000 by the end of the year — an unprecedented figure in virus history. At the same time, however, the trend toward mass assaults using network worms dropped significantly with only two major outbreaks, one in September, with the Zotob worm causing larger disruptions internationally, and the second, a worm called Sober. Y, flooding e-mail systems in late November.
2005 was a year characterized by a spate of criminal phishing attempts, either directly to online banking customers yielding high profits to the malware authors or by exploiting man-made and natural disasters. Finally, 2005 was also the year which saw the number of mobile phone malware exceed the 100 mark — growing proof that the criminal bodies behind their creation are serious in their attempts to exploit this new arena. A full look at the six months security report is at the F-Secure website: http://www.f-secure.com/2005/2/.