Polymorphic Ransom Malware Highest On Fortinet’s Threat Charts

According to the most recent threat report from Fortinet, the security firm, fake anti-virus applications are apparently imbibing a few of the tricks for raising money that the relatively more dangerous ransomware use.

States Fortinet that the malware that spread most widely in August 2010 was TotalSecurity W32/FakeAlert.LU!tr, a fake anti-virus program which tries to get unsuspecting users to buy useless licenses for malicious programs that don't really exist. The security firm detected that this malware variant was behind 37.3% of the total malware threats of August 2010.

Different from the usual bogus anti-virus applications, TotalSecurity's new variant extends the strategy further via blocking all software programs except the Web-browser on the victim's computer from running, citing that they're contaminated. The variant then invites the victim to buy the worthless product in order to clean the infection.

Notably, TotalSecurity made its biggest comeback during August 2010 ever-since March same year. This resurgence has been possible via making the malware polymorphic in nature wherein the malware's code becomes different every hour that enables it to escape identification.

Said project manager of threat research and cyber security Derek Manky at Fortinet, the polymorphic technique was commonly found in botnets, particularly Waledac that the TotalSecurity developers adopted. ComputerWeekly.com published this on September 2, 2010.

Manky analyzed that the case with TotalSecurity was another instance in which dependence on only anti-virus products didn't prove an end in itself towards safeguarding systems from contamination.

Says Fortinet, these attacks prove how computer-based AVs are actually vulnerable. An additional defense will likely do better for identifying TotalSecurity via seizing the malicious e-mail campaign that's initially launched for proliferating it alternatively, via disabling the download Internet site.

State the security researchers that malware relying on e-threats along with direct intervention into a computer's activity have from rarity, once upon a time, become more prevalent now.

Meanwhile, Fortinet also reported the five greatest malware-hit countries. These are Japan on No.1 with 41.4% of the entire infections followed with USA, France and Taiwan with 39.3%, 30.4% and 14.5% of all infections respectively, while China came in on No.5 at 12% during August 2010.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/9/2010