14 DAY TRIAL // Security vendor Trend Micro discovered a new threat targeting the Windows computers and revealed that TROJ_VUNDO.ZK may be deployed as a DLL file and serve as a method to download additional infections on an affected computer. The Trojan horse targets most Windows flavors including 98m ME, NT, 2000, XP and Server 2003, having a low damage potential and a low distribution potential.
"This Trojan requires other components in order to run properly. When executed successfully, this Trojan accesses a certain URL to download a possibly malicious file. As a result, routines of the downloaded file may also be exhibited on the affected system," Trend Micro wrote in the advisory.
And now, the dangerous facts: TROJ_VUNDO.ZK has a medium overall risk rating and a HIGH rating when it comes to the number of the reported infections. According to the security company, there are no less than 266,305 infected computers in North America, 4,574 in Asia and 4,162 in Australia and New Zealand. And this happened in less than 24 hours, as Trend Micro provided the statistics concerning the "computers infected since December 4, 2007."
Europe was pretty lucky as the threat targeted especially the North American computers so only 288 Europeans got infected. Africa reported only 133 infected systems while South America has only 44 victims.
There's not much to do when such a threat targets your computer and you didn't install an antivirus solution. Because, as time passes by, the security companies from all over the world are releasing updated virus definitions for their technologies, making the products capable of blocking and removing potential infections. That's why you're advised to keep your antivirus up-to-date with the latest virus definitions and avoid downloading unknown files or untrusted applications coming from malicious sources. And remember: it's always easier to prevent infections than to struggle to disinfect the computer!