PETALING JAYA, (SEPTEMBER 19, 2013) – Malware attacks mean financial losses for about 36% of users – with many people forced to pay to restore damaged devices to working order. This figure emerged from the summer 2013 global survey conducted by B2B International and Kaspersky Lab.
It is widely but wrongly believed that malware causes no problems beyond slowing down a computer and possibly crashing certain websites. The truth is that malware attacks have long been costing users cold, hard cash: for example, a fraudster may steal all a victim’s savings with a single successful attack on e-payment or e-banking accounts. Even users who fall victim to “ordinary” malware, rather than its cash-hungry cousins, are still likely to face unforeseen expenses.
17% of respondents said that these costs involved paying for third party expertise to restore the victim’s device to working order. About 10% had to pay to recover lost data, while 9% had to replace damaged components and 5% needed an entirely new device.
More than a quarter of all respondents (27%) had suffered at least one malware attack in the past 12 months. It’s a significant figure, but not a surprising one: Kaspersky Lab specialists detect more than 200,000 samples of malicious software every day (as little as a year ago this figure was much lower at 125,000 malware samples per day).
A substantial number of users, 11%, only opted to buy protection after it was too late and they had already succumbed to attack. In the best case scenario this disrupted work on the device; in the worst cases the attacks left users out of pocket.
The survey results reinforce the fact that it is essential to ensure that online devices are protected – long before any problems might arise. And with so many effective products on today’s market, there’s no excuse to wait until it’s too late.
Preventing Damage
Advanced mechanisms for detecting and blocking malware are the key technologies behind Kaspersky Lab protection products. Kaspersky Internet Security – Multi-Device is a security solution developed to safeguard several devices working on different OS. It integrates a range tools capable of combating the malware which targets the most frequently attacked platforms.
Kaspersky Internet Security for Windows is part of Kaspersky Internet Security – Multi-Device. In addition to its antivirus core, it also features technologies specially developed to detect unknown software (Automatic Exploit Prevention and ZETA Shield), advanced anti-rootkit technologies and a mechanism which automatically prevents blockers from maliciously denying users access to the vital functions of the OS.
Like its Windows-based colleague Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac, which is also integrated in Kaspersky Lab’s new multi-device solution, features a set of heuristic technologies which can detect attacks even when the malware agent is unknown to standard file and web antivirus technologies.
Finally, Kaspersky Internet Security for Android provides a high level of security for any Android-based smartphone or tablet. It uses special mechanisms designed to carry out a rigorous check on the code of any applications downloaded to the device, as well as a number of other protection technologies.
The best way to avoid the financial losses caused by malicious attacks is to prevent these attacks. Kaspersky Internet Security – Multi-Device is the perfect solution to achieve this goal.
