A report recently released by security company Dasient found that malware totals in the first quarter of 2010 rose consistently while hackers continued to carry out more refined attacks against both businesses and personal computers, according to Spamfighter. Dasient found more than 720,000 websites with malware infections from January through March compared to 560,000 in the final three months of 2009.

Dasient believes that one of the most alarming trends from the time period was the number of larger companies that experienced malware attacks. It's fairly common for small- and medium-sized businesses to experience infection, but large corporations typically employ greater desktop security protocol. The security measures were not necessarily lower, but it appears that hackers have just become better at compromising even the most secure networks.

The report found that the growing complexity of the web, including advancements in Java and other add-ons, have provided cyber criminals with more opportunity to attack websites.

In February, web security company NetWitness discovered the Kneber botnet, which infected nearly 75,000 computers in about 2,500 companies worldwide. The botnet spread as a result of social networking use at corporations, and NetWitness believes its primary target was user login information for social networking and email services.ADNFCR-2553-ID-19794024-ADNFCR