ESET – PC Worm ‘Conficker’ Dominates its Threat Trend Report for July 2009

Antivirus and IT security firm 'ESET' has recently released a new e-threat report "Global Threat Trends-July 2009 Report" wherein it has said that Conficker continues to be an headache for security researchers. Conficker is said to have compromised 10.67% of total infected computers in July 2009. Moreover, the worm stuck to its previous month's ranking and captured number one spot in July again.

The second most prevalent PC worm on the list was INF/Autorun that accounted for a total of 8.39% malware detection in July 2009. The default Autorun setting automatically executes a program listed in the Autorun.inf file as soon as the user accesses any kinds of removable device such as USB drives. It means if the virus is listed on any removable device, it will function automatically.

Win32/PSW.OnLineGames grabbed the third place by accounting for 7.92% of total malware identified in July 2009. The security company further reveals that this Trojan family is generally used in phishing attacks, particularly aims at online game players.

Win32/Agent retained its previous month's rank (No. 4) in July 2009 as well, said ESET. The security company has described this malicious code as generic which is generally used to steal personal information of users from infected computers. This family of malware had a share of 2.59% in the total malware detections in July 2009.

Contributing a total of 2.38% of malicious codes, Win32/FlyStudio occupied the fifth place on the list of e-threats. malware authors have specifically designed it to change the information in the victim's Internet browser. This malware modifies search queries in order to deliver advertisements to users. Moreover, Win32/FlyStudio seems to make its target only Chinese computers.

ESET listed 'INF/Conficker' at number six after analyzing its contribution to the malicious codes, which stood at 1.91% of total threats in July 2009. INF/Conficker seems to be related to INF/Autorun.

Win32/Pacex.Gen was placed at number seven for its share of 1.84% of total malicious codes, while WMA/TrojanDownloader.GetCodec ranked eighth as it accounted for 0.90%. Win32/Qhost held the ninth place by making up 0.85% of malware in July 2009.

'Win32/AutoRun' dropped two places from its June ranking to the tenth place in July and contributed 0.70% of malware.

Related article: ESET Discusses Malware Writers’ Trend

» SPAMfighter News - 8/28/2009