Virtumonde.gen Adware Package Ranked Highest in Malware Chart

Kaspersky Lab, an Internet security providing firm, revealed that during February 2008, Virtumonde.gen, a family of malware that accounted for 2.86% of total malware, along with Trojan Downloaders and other various Trojans, dominated the malware threat landscape.

Kaspersky's Online Scanner chart for the month of February 2008 shows that Virtumonde.gen adware left behind other malware programs. Besides, the chart included 11 new entries and half of the total threats are from Trojan variants like droppers, downloaders and dialers.

According to the report, hybrid malware, designed to provide backdoor entry to Trojans, retained its place. Generally, trojans serve for backdoor entry of other forms of malware, including notorious Virtumonde adware package, which is hard to remove from PC after installation.

Alongside, Kaspersky has made a list of top twenty e-mail viruses in which Win32.NetSky.q, an e-mail worm, topped third time in a row in February 2008, whereas Win32.Small.hsl, a Trojan-Downloader, slipped to fifth place, and Win.32.Diehard.ez, another Trojan-Downloader, reached to 12th place.

Aleks Gostev, Virus Analyst, Kaspersky Lab, said that Diehard family was involved in several outbreaks in February 2008 with the volume of programs in the family continued to rise. Combining the involvement of all variants of Diehard family in percentage terms, the family overtook Trojan Win.32.Dialer.yz, as reported by Vnunet on March 5, 2008.

David Emm, Senior Technology Consultant, Kaspersky Labs, said that Trojan-Downloader successfully escapes undetected, facilitating cyber criminals to update existing malware on compromised computers, which in turn, increase their 'shelf-life', as reported by Channelregister on March 5, 2008.

Moreover, Kaspersky also disclosed that apart from Trojan-Downloader, e-mail worm like Bagle.OF with 1.32% share assumed the second position in the chart. Small.ieg, a Trojan with 1.21% share, RAS.A, a password stealer with 1.01%, occupied fourth and fifth spots respectively.

Including these, other worms and Trojan continued to trouble Internet users in February 2008. The variants of malware packages were so diverse that 86% of infection incidents caused by them failed to appear in the top 20 list.

Besides, Kaspersky also enlisted countries on the basis of malware received. The US topped with 13.3% followed by South Korea with 7.88%, India with 6.05%, China with 5.75%, and the UK at fifth place.

Related article: Virtumundo Proliferating Aggressively through Detachable Devices

» SPAMfighter News - 3/18/2008