Sunbelt Software Releases Top Ten Trojan List for January 2009

Security vendor Sunbelt Software announced its monthly data record comprising of the most frequently observed spyware and malware threats on February 10, 2008.

In the top ten list of common spyware threats for January 2009, the top rank was occupied by an adware, Virtumonde, which contributed 6.35% of the total attacks defected by Sunbelt. In addition, Virtumonde has been creating trouble for security analysts for some time as its supporters update the code every week.

Apart from Virtumonde, other most harmful codes detected by Sunbelt and added to its top ten list are Trojan-Downloader.Zlob.Media-Codec-3.12%, Trojan-Downloader.Generic 2.01%, Trojan.FakeAlert 2.01%, Explorer32.Hijacker 2.00%, occupying the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th rank respectively during January 2009.

Moreover, Trojan.Crypt.XPACK.Gen (1.83%), Trojan.1 (1.45%), Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen (1.38%), Rootkit TDss.Gen (1.33%), and Trojan.Win32.Monder.gen (1.25%) acquired the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th positions respectively.

While the above mentioned is the list of commonly observed spyware threats during January 2009, Adware Virtumonde, Trojan-Downloader.Zlob.Media-Codec and Explorer32.Hijacker were most frequently detected in December 2008. On comparing the top two malware for both December 2008 and January 2009, they were reported to be same.

Security experts add that nowadays, trojans are tough to crack; thus, they claim that users need to have adequate measures to prevent trojans from entering the systems. If they do enter the machine, then users should adopt strict steps to clean them up.

CEO of Sunbelt, Alex Eckelberry, said in statement that the growing sophistication of malware makes conventional detection techniques outdated, as the latest versions of malware employ obfuscation methods made to hide even from the most developed detection system, as reported by NETWORKWORLD in the first week of February 2009.

Security analysts comment that now it is time for all security vendors to take appropriate measures to stop spreading of malware on machines. They should also use the latest and leading antivirus and anti-malware software solutions on machines.

Related article: Sunbelt Software’s Release List of Top Ten Malware for September 2008

» SPAMfighter News - 2/24/2009