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Social networking malware on the increase

The amount of social networking malware has been boosted by a large number of Koobface modifications flooding sites such as Facebook.

According to Stefan Tanase, security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, last month saw a huge increase in the use of social networks as a method for spreading malware and other forms of malicious code.

Mr Tanase claimed that the number of Trojans and viruses circulating the web in summer is usually lower than at other times of year.

However, he said that the growth in the number of attacks carried out by the modified Koobface program was an unexpected development.

"This is most likely caused by the fact that cyber criminals are realising how effective malware spread by social networking really is," he added.

"Malware is no longer developed for fun or fame, it is only profit-driven," he concluded.

According to research by scientists at Symantec, there has been a dramatic increase in spam over the past two months.

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