Microsoft Releases Top Malware Numbers for October

As per the Microsoft malware Protection Center's Threat Research & Response, rogue AV, also called scareware, is ruling the malware list, being 6 of the top 10 harmful programs removed by the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) in the US in October 2009.

In general, the MSRT has cleaned 2,516,235 systems globally, with different malware families dominating in different countries, as one would anticipate. The Microsoft blog demonstrates data from Brazil, China and the US; no rogues are in the top 11 list for China and merely one in Brazil, whereas the bulk in the US are rogues.

Further as of October 21st, the MSRT has eliminated the latest threat, Win32/FakeScanti from 56,700 infected systems. In October 2009, it was the 12th most common threat family globally and 7th in the US.

Moreover, in the US as well as other English speaking countries rouges are dominant. MSRT researchers say that this seems a challenge to recognize the legit AV products when there are several rogue products popping on users' systems.

Moreover, six out of the top ten threat families in China are password stealers, most of which are looking for online gamers' information. Six out of the top ten threat families in Brazil are also password stealers, although many of them (Banload, Bancos and Banker) tend to attack online banking details.

Besides this, in other findings of the MSRT for October are that though Koobface appears on the list, but it is nowhere close to top. Conficker is massive in the remaining world, but not in the US. In China and Brazil, six of the top threats are password stealers. Microsoft says that in China these are used for illegally capturing gaming details, while in Brazil they used to steal bank account details.

In the meantime, the number of sites hosting harmful software, either unintentionally or deliberately is increasing at a fast pace. Similarly, as per statistics released lately by Dasient in excess of 640,000 sites and around 5.8 Million webpages are compromised with malware.

Related article: Microsoft Patches Live OneCare to Tackle Quarantined E-Mails

» SPAMfighter News - 11/10/2009