Trojans dominate top ten virus threats

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Last month, users were more likely to be struck by trojans than any other kind of virus.


Last month, users were more likely to be struck by trojans than any other kind of virus.

The main threat was Clicker.CM. an ad-serving trojan. Also prevalent were three variants of the Wimad trojan downloader, according to a report from security firm BitDefender. The Wimad trojan takes on the appearance of a codec downloader.

The Trojan.Qhost.AKR, a piece of malware that tries to disable anti-virus updates, was the fifth most widely seen, and a Flash exploit and the Trojan.Swizzor.1 virus were next.

An an ActiveX control exploit called SinaDLoader ActiveX was the eighth most seen. This one tricks a browser into downloading and installing malware.
The last two were a virus that spreads via peer-to-peer file sharing and a downloader for a fake anti-virus package called “XP Antivirus.”

Sorin Dudea, head of virus research at BitDefender said in a statement: “XP Antivirus has had previous forms. It used to appear with a valid digital signature and a lengthy [end-user license agreement0, from sites with security-related names.

As such it was somewhat of a champion in the social engineering area, convincing victims that it was in fact a legitimate piece of security software.

"Measures taken to revoke the malware's digital signature by GlobalSign [an SSL certificate provider] and the denial-of-anonymity to the people who ran sites hosting it by Directi [a web services firm], seem to has put a dent in the operation,” he said.

See original article on scmagazineus.com
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