14 DAY TRIAL // Well, what do you know? Worms have always been in the top 10 malware threats. Does that come as a surprise to you? Well, if it does, just let me tell you that worms replicate themselves really fast, so it's not that we aren't facing other viruses too, but none infects as many files as worms do! In any case, BitDefender has announced the chart of the most dangerous threats out there, in the month of September.
Things are a bit different now - the top 10 worms only account for 64% of the whole malware out there. There have been times when a single worm, like Sasser, would account for 80% of the total infections. Now, no worm has absolute power, but there are so many of them, that it's almost the same thing?
Also, the way these viruses work has changed a bit - "Malware writers seem to have found out that discretion is the better part of valor and are striving to produce stealthy custom viruses that will do what's required of them and no more, to avoid early detection by antivirus companies", said Viorel Canja, head of BitDefender Labs.
So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I give you BitDefender's Top 10 malware list, for September 2007:
1. win32.worm.p2p.puce.g 11.1% 2. worm.rjump.k 10.3% 3. win32.worm.autruner.cd 8.4% 4. win32.netsky.p@mm 6.3% 5. win32.worm.ice.a 6.1% 6. win32.worm.rjump.b 5.2% 7. worm.vbs.solow.a 4.8% 8. win32.worm.vb.ymeak.a 4.4% 9. win32.worm.sohanat.as 3.9% 10. worm.rjump.j 3.5%
As BitDeefender experts explain, the most virulent threat sits at number #3. This is a standard-issue worm with a little extra something, to top it off. It copies itself along with autorun.inf files pointing to them in every drive it can find. After it installs itself, it also tries to disapble AV protection so that the machine cannot be disinfected. This is why it's important for you security software to be reliable - so that no virus can take it down! This virus would have done something else too - connect to a site and download more malware, but fortunately, that page has been brought offline as seen in the same report.