Friday, 3 August 2007

Top 10 Web-Email Borne Threats for July 2007

The ten most prevalent malware threats causing problems for computers around the world in the month of July 2007 has been revealed with drive-by downloads remaining as cybercriminals’ favourite web threats...

The ten most prevalent malware threats causing problems for computers around the world in the month of July 2007 has been revealed with drive-by downloads remaining as cybercriminals’ favourite web threats.

The figures, complied by IT security and control company Sophos’s global network of monitoring stations, shows a significant rise in the Mal/ObfJS family of web threats, up from just 1.8 percent the previous month to 17.3 percent.

However, despite this growth Mal/ObjJS has still not been able to usurp Mal/Iframe’s number one position which accounts for more than half of all web threats seen by Sophos.

The top ten list of web-based malware threats in July 2007 reads as follows:

1. Mal/Iframe-56.0 percent
2. Mal/ObfJS- 17.3 percent
3. Troj/Psyme-10.4 percent
4. Troj/Decdec-3.5 percent
5. Troj/Fujif-1.9 percent
6. Mal/Zlob-1.1 percent
7. VBS/Edibara-0.9 percent
8. Mal/Packer-0.8 percent
9. Mal/Behav-0.4 percent
10. VBS/Redlof-0.4 percent

Experts at SophosLabs note that the prominence of both threats in the top ten emphasises the popularity of the drive-by download technique with cybercriminals, as well as continued growth in the use of obfuscated Javascripts in compromising sites.

"The security dangers of the web still aren't fully registering with a great many businesses - this is providing rich pickings for hackers hell-bent on gaining access to sensitive information," said Paul Ducklin, head of technology for Asia Pacific at Sophos.

"It's no surprise to see legitimate webpages targeted for these attacks - businesses generally aren't too strict about stopping their employees accessing these websites, while the sites themselves will already have their own daily flow of user traffic, saving hackers the trouble of trying to entice unenlightened web surfers."

China was named as at the top of the list for countries hosting malware-infected web pages in July 2007 with the United States and Russia trailing in second and third place respectively.