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Dramatic reduction in viral email traffic indicates that malware authors now prefer Trojan horse targeted attacks

August 2nd, 2006 · No Comments


While the Netsky-P worm, first seen in March 2004, remains the most widespread piece of malware botnet.jpgtravelling via email, the actual proportion of infected email has dropped to a low of just one in 222 (0.45 percent). This compares to the first six months of 2006 when, on average, one in 91 emails (1.1 percent) carried malicious attachments.

3,715 new threats were identified in July, bringing the total of malware protected against to 184,007. The majority of the new threats (87 percent) were Trojan horses, while just 13 percent were worms or viruses.

The top malware in July 2006 were Netsky-P, Mytob-AS, Bagle-Zip, Nyxem-D and MyDoom-O.

The dramatic reduction in viral email traffic indicates that malware authors are looking for other methods of infection. Hackers are turning away from mass-mailing viruses and worms in favour of more insidious Trojan horse targeted attacks aimed at smaller groups of users, spamming out links to malicious websites, and attempting to steal money and identities. Security Park - Dramatic reduction in viral email traffic indicates that malware authors now prefer Trojan horse targeted attacks

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