Cyber Criminals Hunt New Methods for Malware Distribution

The Internet security company 'BitDefender' has released a new report according to which malware authors are continuing to concentrate on Web-based assaults, while hunting new methods for disseminating their wares.

The report states that during July-December 2009, these authors have carried on with their efforts to infect Internet users so that they could compromise the users' systems and acquire direct financial benefits from them. The frightening rate at which infection spread shows that the motive of malware writers is to gain profit, while cyber criminals commit pay-per-click fraud.

Vlad Vlceanu, Head of anti-spam Research Lab, BitDefender, said that during the last six months of 2009, there had been several global events like H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic exploited by the malware authors fully to execute fresh infections, as reported by SecurityProNews on December 28, 2009.

Furthermore, Trojan.Clicker.CM has been the top e-threat during July-December 2009, the report states. This Trojan is employed for thrusting advertisements into Web-browsers of those users who access shady sites like pornographic sites or those providing "Warez" software.

In addition to the old Trojan.Clicker.CM infections, another highly notorious e-threat during the second half of 2009 has been Win32.Worm.Downadup.

Attack techniques based on the Autorun feature have been gaining momentum. This feature is found in detachable storage devices, which by default contain an autorun.ini code. The code commands the PC - which file it should run once the device is attached to the system. Nevertheless, malware writers often manipulate the file so that it installs various types of malicious software on the system.

BitDefender's report states that during July-December 2009, malware propagation has been most active in China, France and the US. Following these countries were Australia, which climbed one position since January-June 2009, Romania, which also climbed one position and Spain, which dropped one position.

Commenting on this issue, Vlceanu stated that since cyber criminals kept on searching new methods for making their malware more effective, it was imperative that computer users ensured the deployment of security solutions on their systems. This would provide them sophisticated and proactive defense, the researcher said.

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» SPAMfighter News - 1/5/2010