In a new report, CA Technologies highlighted the growth of Trojans and the twists and turns of the market for crimeware-as-a-service.

Researchers identified more than 400 new families of threats, led by fake anti-virus, malware downloaders and bakdoors. Trojans were the most prevalent category of threats, accounting for 73 percent of total infections reported around the world in the first half of 2010.

Additionally, researchers observed attackers were directing more attention towards social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, with a black market evolving to develop and sell tools such as social networking bots, with underground marketers promoting new social networking applications and services that include account checkers, wall posters and friend adders.

"Crimeware isn't new, but the extent to which a services model has now been adopted is amazing," said Don DeBolt, director of threat research, Internet Security, at CA, in a statement. "This new method of malware distribution makes it more challenging to identify and remediate. Fortunately, security professionals and developers are diligent about staying one step ahead of these cyber criminals."

The report can be downloaded here.