Top 10 Malware Threats for January
Leading anti-malware developer finds continued prevalence of Trojan horse programs
Sunbelt Software announced the top 10 most prevalent malware threats for the month of January 2010. The report, compiled from monthly scans performed by Sunbelt’s award-winning anti-malware solution, VIPRE® Antivirus + Antispyware, and its antispyware tool, CounterSpy®, is a service of SunbeltLabs(TM).
In January, the malware landscape remained remarkably similar to December, according to Sunbelt Software ThreatNet statistics. The top seven detections were the same as December, but in a slightly different order. In December and January, six of the top 10 detections were Trojan horse programs.
Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT – a generic detection for Trojans that comprised nearly one quarter (23.15 percent) of all the malware found. It remained in the top position for the third month in a row, growing by nearly 20 percent from 18.69 percent of all detections in December. It is a detection that includes many downloaders associated with scareware or rogue security products.
After holding the top spot on the list for most of 2009, the password-stealing Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen held the second position on the list for the third consecutive month, decreasing from 6.23 to 4.91 percent of all detections.
“I think we can expect to see Trojan horse programs continue to be the top detections for the foreseeable future,” said Michael St. Neitzel, Sunbelt Software vice president of Threat Research. “Trojans used to download and install a wide variety of other malware and those are the real moneymakers for the bad guys.”
Other Trojans in the top 10 were:
– Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0
– Trojan.Win32.Malware
– Trojan.ASF.Wimad (v)
– Trojan.HTML.FakeAlert.a (v)
Meanwhile, three new detections moved onto this month’s top 10 list. Virtumonde — a generalized description of an adware program with many versions of pop up advertising — constituted 1.23 percent of overall detections. Packed.Win32.TDSS.aa.3 (v) — a sophisticated rootkit and Trojan that is used primarily to redirect search engine results — made up 1.21 percent. Finally, Trojan.HTML.FakeAlert.a (v) — a detection for an HTML file which replaces a desktop background and works with other rogue malware — made up just under one percent of all detections.
The top 10 results represent the number of times a particular malware infection was detected during VIPRE and CounterSpy scans that report back to ThreatNet, Sunbelt’s community of opt-in users. These threats are classified as moderate to severe based on method of installation among other criteria established by SunbeltLabs. The majority of these threats propagate through stealth installations or social engineering.
The top 10 most prevalent malware threats for the month of January are:
1. Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT 23.15%
2. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen 4.91%
3. Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen (v) 4.55%
4. Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0 2.40%
5. Trojan.Win32.Malware 1.93%
6. Trojan.ASF.Wimad (v) 1.92%
7. INF.Autorun (v) 1.46%
8. Virtumonde 1.23%
9. Packed.Win32.TDSS.aa.3 (v) 1.21%
10. Trojan.HTML.FakeAlert.a (v) 0.98%
Source: Sunbelt Software
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Sunbelt Software and FaceTime partner to enable Secure Web 2.0, Social Networks and Unified Communications
Sunbelt’s Anti-malware Technology Integrated into FaceTime’s Secure Web Gateway
Sunbelt Software, a leading provider of Windows security software, announced a licensing agreement with FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions enabling the safe use of Web 2.0 and unified communications in the enterprise.
Through the terms of the agreement, Sunbelt’s anti-malware technology, designed specifically for the gateway, and its Threat Track(TM) data feeds have been licensed by FaceTime for integration with its Unified Security Gateway product. As part of the integration, FaceTime will deploy Sunbelt’s VIPRE technology into its appliance to augment the protection provided by FaceTime’s Security Labs and the FaceTime WebFilter.
With the incorporation of Sunbelt’s gateway anti-malware technology, FaceTime’s Unified Security Gateway delivers robust malware scanning at the network perimeter alongside traditional Web filtering. This is in addition to the application research provided by FaceTime’s Security Labs, which protects enterprises from the associated threats of more than 2,100 Web 2.0 applications from instant messaging to P2P, Gaming, IPTV and social networking. Sunbelt’s Threat Track provides the industry’s most accurate and up-to-date feeds, identifying and propagating the latest malicious URLs and malware to researchers. It relies on the world-class research efforts of SunbeltLabs(TM), the malware research and analysis division of Sunbelt Software.
“As enterprise communications converge with publicly available Web 2.0 applications it becomes imperative to secure increasingly complex data streams,” said Nishant Jadhav, Director of Product Management of FaceTime Communications. “Sunbelt gives us the most powerful information in real-time to be able to protect enterprise users so they can freely communicate through any channel in a secure fashion.”
“Sunbelt’s threat research and detection technology, along with Threat Track data feeds is a perfect complement to FaceTime’s existing application security capabilities,” said Chad Loeven, VP, business development for Sunbelt Software. “The integration of our comprehensive perimeter anti-malware scanning engine provides FaceTime’s customers protection from the full range of threats that can be found in the Web 2.0 sphere.”
Source: Sunbelt Software

