The Number of Worm Parasites Doubled In First 6 Months of 2009
On Monday, Microsoft released the latest Security Intelligence Report. The software giant has released details revealing that a number of computer worms in enterprise environments have doubled during the first six months of 2009. On the contrary, this particular tendency hasn't been noticed in home environments as of yet.
Microsoft has counted the number of threats detected by its anti-malware desktop products and found out Conficker and Taterf worms as the top threats. A revival of worms has become a serious problem to computer users.
A computer worm is malicious software that is able to steal information or stored data on an infected systems hard drive. Worms are created to copy themselves where they can quickly crawl from PC to PC by hiding in legitimate software programs and USB drives or other portable data storage devices. Such devices are becoming more popular means for users to move video, music, games and other data. Most commonly, worms spread through e-mails when compared to other techniques.
For the first half of the year, Microsoft found that more than 5 million PCs were infected with Conficker worm. Do you know how this most prevalent type of threat is circulating? Conficker spreads either by exploiting a vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Server service, or through infected removable media or brute-forcing taking advantage of weak passwords on user’s computers.
The next threat, called Taterf, took the second place in a list of mostly spread worms or security threats. Taterf steals authentication and account information which is usually passwords or license keys for multiplayer online games and fashion. Taterf spreads through infected drives such as USB drive or an infected network drive. Similar to Conficker worm, Taterf spreads exclusively through 'Autorun' methods.
According to Microsoft, the two security threats reported together for more than 35 percent of the top 10 malicious software infections in first half of this year. The latest security report also reveals some of Microsoft's success in a struggle against malware authors. The report concludes by saying that Microsoft's security measures are preventing malware before it is downloaded. Enterprise users should make sure that software programs are regularly updated to protect all file shares and the use of removable media such as commonly used thumb drives.