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Bournemouth, UK (15th August 2008) – ESET announced today its Mid-Year Global Threat Report, which reveals a dramatic increase in malware designed to steal passwords used for online gaming and virtual worlds and a significant decline in the use of email as a direct channel for the distribution of new malware. In addition, the ESET report, which uses a unique store of data gathered through its ThreatSense.Net technology from over 10 million systems worldwide, shows that malicious software using the Windows Autorun Facility continues to flourish.

The threat landscape in the last six months has been dominated by INF/Autorun, peaking in March at 10.30% of all threats detected. This detection label is used to describe a variety of malware using the file autorun.inf as a way of compromising a PC. Although the autorun feature is very convenient in terms of installing and/or running legitimate software from removable media, it also gives malware authors the opportunity to use the same media to disseminate their badware. They do not even need direct access to the media. Once a malicious program is installed on a system, it can simply look out for the presence of writeable media and copy itself there.

Online games represent a growth area for phishing and password stealing activities and the popularity of this activity appears to have been fuelled by the recognition among criminals that virtual points and currency can be traded for money in the real world. The second most detected threat in the first half of 2008 is Win32/PSW.OnLineGames, a family of Trojans with keylogging and rootkit capabilities which gathers information relating to online gaming.

“Threats against sites like World of Warcraft or Second Life aren’t just about teenage mischief any more. The theft of “virtual” treasure often translates into real profit for organised criminal gangs,” comments David Harley, Director of Malware Intelligence, ESET. “Users in general need to be aware of just how much malicious activity occurs in virtual worlds, some of which cannot realistically be mitigated directly by security software on the desktop at the current time. Gamers need to find out what security measures RPG and metaverse providers are putting in place for the protection of their subscribers.”

ESET’s Virus Radar statistics, which focus on the content of email messages including attachments only, suggest that the use of email as a direct channel for the transport of new malware is in dramatic decline. However, ESET says that email remains a major vector for the distribution of malicious URLs, which may use social engineering to trick the victim into installing malware, but may also use “drive-by” downloads that enable the installation of malware without any action on the part of the victim, other than visiting the site.

Where ESET’s tracking systems do see malicious attachments, they are far less likely to be completely new threats and many of the top detections are mass mailers that have been around for several years. This suggests that the main sources of email-borne malware nowadays are unprotected machines, probably mostly home machines rather than corporate systems. It is probable that most bot-infected machines are also used by home users rather than corporate users. The decline in the numbers of bot-related malware disseminated by email reflects the more general trend.

The full report can be found here:
http://www.eset.co.uk/threat-center/GlobalThreatRprtHalfYr20080807.pdf
Journalists please contact:
Sara Claridge,
Marylebone Media Relations,
E: sara@marylebone.co.uk or
M: +44 (0)7968 626383.

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About ThreatSense.Net
ThreatSense.Net includes data about all types of threats seen attacking user systems. This (anonymised) statistical information is collected from those users of ESET security software who choose to enable the reporting service in the product and gives a comprehensive view of the behaviour and spread of malware in the real world. Data is currently collected from more than 10 million systems.

About ESET
ESET develops software solutions that deliver comprehensive protection against evolving computer security threats. ESET pioneered and continues to lead the industry in proactive threat detection. ESET NOD32 Antivirus, its flagship product, consistently achieves the highest accolades in all types of comparative testing and is the foundational product that extends the ESET product line to include ESET Smart Security. Both products have an extremely efficient code base that avoids the unnecessary large footprint found in some solutions. This means faster scanning that doesn’t slow down computers or networks.
Sold in more than 110 countries, ESET has worldwide production headquarters in Bratislava, SK and worldwide distribution headquarters in San Diego, U.S. ESET also has offices in UK, Argentina and Czech Republic and is globally represented by an extensive partner network. For more information, visit www.eset.co.uk or call 0845 838 0832.

Media Contact:
Sara Claridge
Marylebone Media Relations
sara@marylebone.co.uk
+44 (0) 20 8133 5572
+44 (0) 7968 626838 (mobile)
www.marylebone.co.uk


Contact Name: Sara Claridge
Role: Director
Company: ESET
Contact Email: click to reveal e-mail
Contact Phone: 020 8133 5572
Company Website: http://www.marylebone.co.uk
More details: http://www.eset.co.uk

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Categories:
it/internet/software

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