Gaming Trojans Represents Dominant Malware Threats

Network security vendor Fortinet recently released its Threatscape Report for May 2009 that reveals Internet gaming trojans as the dominant threat players.

States the report that 'W32/Dropper.PTD' behaved most aggressively among all Internet gaming trojans detected for May 2009. This malware accounted for 34.5% of all malicious software detected during the month, proving as the most virulent outbreak by a lone piece of malware ever since September 2008.

However, according to security researchers at Fortinet, this surge isn't too astonishing considering the sheer number of people that play online games now-a-days. World of Warcraft may be the most played game and yielding the largest revenue, nonetheless there are innumerable people participating in other online games too, the researchers added.

In addition, W32/Virut.A kept up to its strong activity over 2008. However, another fresh and enhanced version, W32/Virut.E also spiked to reach the tenth place on Fortinet's Top Ten malware list for May 2009. Although W32/Virut.E displays similar behavioral trends as Virut.A, nevertheless, it is comparatively more robust and efficient.

Moreover, of all the gaming activity on the Internet, the Virut family continues to be a dominant player as also a real threat. This Trojan family that infects files is featured with botnet capabilities while it has been also observed to proliferate through other viruses, the security company's researchers explained.

Additionally, Fortinet's report further indicates that there was an overall high threat activity, with malicious programs rising 66% since April 2009. Also, security flaws and attack codes rose to the maximum number in the current year (2009), while spam levels were higher in May compared to that in April 2009.

Moreover, for two successive months starting April 2009, China was the leading country in malware activity at 44.86%, largely because of online gaming. United States was again placed second with 37.81% of all malware activity while Japan and China trailed at 33.52% and 16.19% respectively.

As for vulnerabilities, Fortinet said that Microsoft's MS08-067 is the exploit that is most active, thanks to Conficker. Lastly, the recent spam on swine flu is also very active as spammers exploit people's concerns regarding the disease.

Related article: Gaming Sites Under Seizure By False FBI Seal

» SPAMfighter News - 6/4/2009