Crimeware production surged in the second half of 2010,according to the APWG, which said one of its contributing companiesrecorded more than 10 million new malware samples during thosemonths.

Meanwhile, attacks have evolved to a new level, with some nowtaking the form of several components that arrive in an infectedmachine at different times before acting together as one maliciouscode to break into consumer banking accounts and make illicittransfers or bogus bill payments, the APWG said.

Still, “55% of the new samples created in the second half of2010 were Trojans, the favorite weapon used by cybercriminals toinfect consumers' computers,” said Louis Corrons, technicaldirector at PandaLabs and a contributor to the trade group'sjust-released H2 2010Phishing Activity Trends Report.

Corrons' company reported 10,425,663 new malware samples in thelast six months of last year, representing 17% of all samplesPandaLabs has recorded since 1990, he said.

The shift in tactics also was noted in the report.

“During the second half of 2010 we saw a small drop,percentage-wise, in malware aimed specifically at stealing data butan increase in the total amount of samples compared to the firsthalf of 2010. Downloaders are used in many of these cases and theend goal is still to steal data – but using severalcomponents instead of including this functionality in the maincomponent,” said Patrik Runald, senior manager of security researchat Websense.

The APWG also noted an increase in spear-phishing – highlyindividualized attacks on insiders at companies and governmentagencies – and blamed that tactic for some of the mostly costlyhack attacks reported so far.

“These emails usually evade spam and anti-virus filters,and are very effective at infecting a user's computer,” said DaveJevans, APWG chairman. “This trend is accelerating in 2011, and isresponsible for many high-profile corporate data breaches.”

The APWG is a coalition of security, financial services andgovernment organizations founded in 2003 as the Anti-PhishingWorking Group.