By all accounts, cyber crime has continued to grow in 2006. Cyber crime is fueled in part by the availability of malicious code that aids in the theft of valuable and sensitive data. Recent statistics released by leading software security vendors show that malicious code is being developed and released at a breakneck pace. For example, the rapid growth of McAffee’s virus signature database demonstrates the recent surge of malware. According to Stuart McClue, Senior Vice President at McAffee, “it took 18 years for our database to reach 100,000 malicious threats ? and just under two years to double to 200,000.” Moreover, trojans, malware specifically designed to surreptitiously steal data, comprised 31% of the over 200,000 blacklisted malicious threats .

The underground marketplace for malicious code, hereafter referred to as the malware marketplace, bolsters this continued growth of malware and, consequently, the increase in cyber crime. “The economy on the marketplace is facilitating the sale of everything you want, from custom Trojans to rootkits, and moving through to things like vulnerabilities, which are a marketable commodity,” said Graham Ingram, General Manager of the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team.