Panda Security ranks the most dangerous computer threats of the last 20 years

September 13, 2009 · Filed Under Internet Software, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

Panda Security, the Cloud Security Company, announced that PandaLabs, the company’s laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware, has issued a ranking of the most dangerous threats to home and business users of the last 20 years. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the company, experts from PandaLabs wanted to research the most insidious malware threats that have surfaced in the past two decades.

The following threats have been selected for the notoriety they achieved through widespread epidemic and the damage caused:

– Friday 13 or Jerusalem: Created in Israel in 1988 and first reported in Jerusalem, this supposedly commemorated the 40th anniversary of Israel. Whenever the date was Friday 13, it would delete all programs run on an infected computer.
– Barrotes: The first well-known Spanish virus appeared in 1993. Once on the computer, it would remain hidden until January 5, when it would activate displaying just a series of bars on the monitor.
– Cascade or Falling Letters: Created in Germany in 1997, this virus would make the letters on the screen fall in a cascade whenever it infected a computer.
– CIH or Chernobyl: This virus was produced in Taiwan in 1998, and took just one week to propagate and infect thousands of computers.
– Melissa: First appeared on March 26, 1999 in the USA. This ultra-smart malicious code used social engineering to spread, with a message that read “Here is that document you asked for. . . don’t show anyone else ;-) ”
– ILoveYou or Loveletter: So famous, it hardly needs introduction. This romantic virus emerged from the Philippines in 2000. With the subject ‘ILoveYou’ it infected millions of computers around the world and even hit organizations like the Pentagon.
– Klez: Created in 2001 in Germany, it only infected computers on the 13th of odd months.
– Nimda: The name is basically ‘admin’ spelled backwards, as it was able to create administrator privileges on infected computers. It originated in China on September 18, 2001.
– SQLSlammer: This was another major headache for companies. It first appeared on January 25, 2003, and affected more than half a million servers in just a few days.
– Blaster: This virus, created in the USA on August 11, 2003, contained a message in its code: “I just want to say love you, San!!” (We still don’t know who ‘San’ is), and “Billy gates, why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software”.
– Sobig: This German virus was famous in the summer of 2003. The F variant was the most damaging, it attacked on August 19 of the same year and generated more than 1 million copies of itself.
– Bagle: This emerged on January 18, 2004, and has been one of the most prolific viruses with respect to the number of variants.
– Netsky: This worm also came from Germany in 2004 and exploited vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Its creator was also responsible for the notorious Sasser virus.
– Conficker: Last on the list and most recent, it appeared in November 2008. Oddly enough, if your keyboard is configured in Ukrainian, it won’t affect you. . .

Source: Panda Security

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Trojans accounted for 70 percent of the new malware detected during the second quarter of 2009, according to PandaLabs

July 7, 2009 · Filed Under Security Software, Software News · Comment 

This type of malware was also responsible for over a third of all infections between April and June; the Downloader.MDW Trojan was the most active strain of malware during this period – The malicious use of Twitter, the advance of BlackHat SEO techniques, and an in-depth study of the Waledac worm, are some of the other issues covered in the PandaLabs Quarterly Report

Panda Security, the Cloud Security Company, announced that PandaLabs, Panda Security’s laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware, announced the findings from its second quarterly report of 2009 and determined that Trojans accounted for 70 percent of all new malware between April and June 2009.

The report can be downloaded from http://www.pandasecurity.com/img/enc/Quarterly_Report_PandaLabs_Q2_2009.pdf.

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One of the most notable findings of the report is the 6.25 percent drop in spyware, which now represents just 6.9 percent of all new malware. In contrast, adware rose dramatically over this period, from 7.54 percent in the previous quarter to 16.37 percent. This is largely due to the increase in fake antivirus applications, a type of adware that passes itself off as a legitimate security solution. As for worms, their percentage has also risen slightly, now accounting for 4.4 percent of all malware.

Trojans were also responsible for more infections than any other type of malware over this period. This type of malware was behind 34.37 percent of all infections detected by PandaLabs, an increase of 2.86 percent with respect to the previous quarter. Adware infection levels remained stable, accounting for 19.62 percent of the total.

Worms increased slightly (0.89 percent), staying in the picture due largely to the effectiveness by which they spread. Dialers, at 4.48 percent, stubbornly refused to disappear despite the overriding trend for broadband instead of dial-up connections.

In terms of specific strains of malware, the number one ranked specimen between April and June 2009 was Downloader.MDW, a Trojan designed to download other malware on to computers. The Virtumonde spyware and Rebooter.J Trojan were also among the malicious codes that caused most infections.

01 Trj/Downloader.MDW
02 Spyware/Virtumonde
03 Trj/Rebooter.J
04 Trj/Lineage.BZE
05 W32/Bagle.RP.worm
06 Adware/AccesMembre
07 Adware/SystemSecurity
08 W32/Waledac.AS
09 Adware/Lop
10 W32/AutoRun.DJ.worm

When broken down geographically, Taiwan continues to top the list with 33.63 percent of computers infected with active malware. Turkey and Poland come next, with just under 30 percent. Three Scandinavian countries, Sweden (14.2 percent), Norway (12.48 percent) and Finland (12.17 percent), are the countries with the lowest number of computers infected by active malware during the first half of 2009.

Graphical representations of new malware detected in Q2 2009, as well as how different countries are affected by malware infection can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/tags/q2report/.

Malicious use of Twitter

A worm appeared in April which used a cross-site scripting technique to infect Twitter users when they visited the profiles of other infected users. It then infected the new user’s profile to continue propagating. New variants appeared, and finally the creator’s identity was revealed: an individual named Mikey Mooney, who apparently wanted to attract users to a service competing with Twitter.

In early June, Twitter was the focus of other attacks, this time using different techniques, most predominantly, BlackHat SEO. Twitter has a feature called “Trending Topics”, which is a list of the most popular topics that appears in the interface of all Twitter users. When users select a topic through this feature, they see all ‘tweets’ published that are related to this issue.

In this case, malicious users were writing tweets about the topics listed in Twitter Trends with links to malicious Web pages from which malware was downloaded. The first attack focused on just one of the topics, but just a few days later the scope of the attack increased and all popular topics contained malicious links. When the actor David Carradine died, there were hundreds of malicious tweets in just a few hours, and the same thing occurred with other popular issues on Twitter.

The second anniversary of Collective Intelligence, a detailed analysis of the Waledac worm, trends regarding the sending of malware via spam and the evolution of BlackHat SEO techniques are just some of the other issues covered in the PandaLabs Quarterly Report.

Source: Panda Security

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Javacool Software Releases Free SpywareBlaster 4.2

April 15, 2009 · Filed Under Downloads, Internet Software, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

Enhanced “Layered Defense” Spyware, Malware Prevention Software Now Supports More Browsers & With Faster Updating

Fans of Javacool Software LLC, take note: an upgraded version of the company’s popular SpywareBlaster(R) is now available for free downloads from the software company’s Web site (www.javacoolsoftware.com).

With over 50 million free downloads since the company’s launch in 2002, Javacool Software offers a range of free privacy and security software products used by home and small business computer owners worldwide, along with other services for enterprises and networks.

Unlike other subscription or free anti-spyware and anti-malware software, SpywareBlaster focuses on prevention. It protects against stealth downloading of spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers and other potentially unwanted software. And unlike other programs, the performance-friendly SpywareBlaster does not remain running in the background, avoiding drags on a PC’s operation.

SpywareBlaster coexists with other security software to provide a “layered defense” against multiple threats. It prevents the installation of ActiveX-based spyware and other dangerous programs, blocks spying and tracking via cookies, and restricts the actions of potentially threatening Web sites.

The new version 4.2 of SpywareBlaster features improved Windows 7 support, faster updating worldwide, support for the Internet Explorer 8 and K-Meleon browsers, interface improvements and numerous other enhancements.

PC World magazine recently named SpywareBlaster as one of its ’8 Great Free Security Tools.’ Noted the report: “With this downloadable antispyware utility, you can make sure you don’t get infected in the first place rather than scanning for and killing spyware after it hits your machine. It works differently from most competitors by restricting the actions that potentially dangerous Web sites can perform when you visit them. It also protects against dangerous ActiveX controls, and keeps tracking cookies off your PC.”

Javacool Software offers a SpywareBlaster AutoUpdate service to download new versions when they become available, with automatic database updates, easy multi-user coverage and technical support.

Source: Javacool Software LLC

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