Symantec said the rise of such type of malware should concern businesses since traditional security measures simply won't do to stop this malware as this type of malware was designed to evade. Polymorphic malware uses many variations of the same code, but the function is basically the same. The aggressive nature of the malware makes it difficult for security experts to create counter measures to prevent such attacks.

For phishing attacks, the most common channels used were social networks and mobile phones, including wireless application protocol (WAP) pages, which are designed for mobile devices. Symantec said the motive for these targets on mobile devices is identity theft.

Symantec said the intended victims are lured to a fake login page to steal their information before they are redirected to the legitimate WAP pages.

Phishing activities in July increased by 0.01 percentage points since June 2011, with one in 319.3 e-mails (0.313 percent) comprising some form of phishing attack.