Sunbelt Reveals Its List of Ten Most Prevalent Malware Threat for April 2010

The Windows security software vendor Sunbelt, which recently released its list of top ten most widespread malware threats for April 2010, stated that while bots and trojans continue to be the most widespread malware threats on the Internet, use of fake anti-virus software by cybercriminals is gradually increasing.

The list for April saw rogue security software heading into the top ten. Nine of the ten detections in the list are the same that featured in March list.

Sunbelt has ranked Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT as the No. 1 malware threat for April 2010, which accounted for a share of 33.74%. It far outshined the second rank holder Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen at 3.41%.

INF.Autorun (v) (at 2.34%) is placed third while Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen (at 1.88%) is the fourth ranked malware threat on the list. Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0 holds the fifth position with 1.85%.

Moving ahead, Trojan.Win32.Generic.pak!cobra with 1.68% is the sixth most prevalent malware threat for April 2010. BehavesLike.Win32.Malware (v) (with 1.31%), Trojan.Win32.Malware (with 1.23%), Trojan.ASF.Wimad (v) (with 1.07%) occupy the seventh, eight, and ninth place respectively. Finally, on the tenth place is FraudTool.Win32.SecurityTool (v) with 1.03%.

Expressing his views on the findings of the report, Manager of the Sunbelt Software research centre, Tom Kelchner said that the April 2010 threat list presents an interesting picture of the current malicious threat landscape and how the entire anti-virus industry is tackling this threat, as per the news published by sourcewire.com on May 4, 2010.

Kelchner said that the list clear shows that while trojans and bots are prevalent, rogue anti-virus software are also making their presence felt. He further added that several security researchers at various anti-virus firms have been observing a slow but steady surge in rogue activity in the recent months. For cybercriminals, it's emerging as a significant income source.

In the meantime, a recent report from software giant Google claimed that 15% of all malware on the Internet at present is accounted by rogue anti-virus software.

Related article: Sunbelt Software’s Release List of Top Ten Malware for September 2008

» SPAMfighter News - 5/15/2010