Computers Trojans Responsible for Around 60% of Malware in H1-2010

According to the Trend Micro's (security firm) new report released in the first week of 2010, computer Trojans accounted for around 60% of new signatures created by Trend Micro during H1-2010, followed by backdoors and Trojan-spyware. The report further highlighted that most of the computer Trojans led to data-stealing malware.

As per the report, Koobface and Zeus were the most prominent names that have had a major impact during H1-2010. Zeus, designed by an Eastern European organized crime network, is mainly a crimeware kit intended to hack users' online banking information such as user name and passwords and other private details. Small businesses and their banks are attacked by the Zeus Trojan. According to the report, several new Zeus variants are identified by Trend Micro regularly, and this situation is not expected to change in future.

As per the Trend Micro's recent report, the Koobface botnet, so far, has attained infamy as the biggest social networking risk. Earlier this year (2010), TrendLabs security experts highlighted that the masterminds behind KOOBFACE were continually updating their botnet; modifying botnet's architecture, launching new component binaries, and integrating botnet's functions with other binaries. The report highlights that the gang has also started coding their command and control (C&C) communications to stay away from the checking procedure of the authorities and security researchers.

Apart from these malicious threats connected to computer Trojans, Trend Micro reports that during H1-2010, academia sector has had the most negative impact of malware. As a matter of fact, 44% of malware infections targeted schools and universities during first six months of 2010, which often have sophisticated, distributed, and varied infrastructures.

Commenting on this finding, Jamz Yaneza, Threat Research Manager at Trend Micro said that education was probably the hardest hid as a large number of students were using old and outdated anti-virus software. Besides, they were also visiting suspicious websites, as reported by SCMagazineUS on October 4, 2010.

Additionally, after education, the government and technology sectors are next, each grabbing 10% of all malware infections in Q1-2010. Manufacturing accounted for 6% of all infections, whereas health care constituted 4%.

Related article: Computer Virus Writers Adopt New Strategy

» SPAMfighter News - 10/8/2010