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Computer Trojans and Scareware Identified As the Top 10 Threats of September 2010

Security vendor 'GFI Software' (previously known as Sunbelt Labs) has compiled the list of top 10 most widespread malware threats during September (2010). According to the company, statistics for September (2010) showed a surprisingly consistent attack mainly by the same computer Trojan horse programs that persisted for so many months.

The company said that many of the leading malware threats remained unchanged from the months of July and August 2010, as reported by upi on September 5, 2010.

Similar to last month, Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT is still the main problem (23.54%) among problems identified. This general detection comprises over 120,000 traces of malicious applications. This Trojan acquired the top slot on August 2010, with 25.11%, in July (2010) with 29.08% and in June with 27.16% of the total detections.

Second position is also acquired by another type of computer Trojan, the Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen (4.27%). This Trojan tries to steal login credentials such as passwords. It had the same rank in August (2010) also.

Third slot, again, is bagged by another computer Trojan: Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0 (4.06%). This Trojan climbed two positions up from the last month's ranking at no.5. This Trojan also aims at hacking passwords and works in co-ordination with other computer Trojans by installing keyloggers.

Fourth slot on the GFI's monthly list is acquired by Trojan.Win32.Generic.pak!cobra (3.04%). Fifth place is won by INF.Autorun (2.3%). Worm.Win 32.Downad.Gen (1.44%) stood at sixth place. PlaySushi (1.08%) grabbed the eighth rank on the list. And Trojan.Win32.Malware.a (0.83%) stood at the tenth rank on the monthly list.

Shockingly, seventh and ninth slots on the list are occupied by scareware, Trojan.HTML.FakeAlert.e (1.09%) and FraudTool.Win32.FakeAV.gen!droppedData (0.91%). Both these scareware, display fake alerts to users' system to trick them into downloading bogus anti-virus programs, which, in reality, are malware.

Commenting on these findings, Francis Montesino, Manager of the malware Processing Team at GFI Labs said that these detections confirmed the activities of botnet operators. They utilized their networks to roll out the spam that was targeted to infect computers, as reported by techeye on October 5, 2010.

Finally, GFI security experts noted that this problem is increasing and playing on netizens' fears. Besides, they highlighted the need of safety awareness.

Related article: Computer Virus Writers Adopt New Strategy

» SPAMfighter News - 10/9/2010

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