Dorf rockets to top of malware chart
More than 2,500 variants have been found
The recently discovered Dorf malware has had a massive impact on computer users worldwide accounting for almost 50 per cent of all malware seen during January, according to vendor Sophos.
The Dorf malware was aggressively spammed, posing as breaking news of deaths caused by stormy European weather during January.
Later in the month the authors changed tack and launched a further campaign disguising the malware as a romantic email greeting card.
Elsewhere in the top 10, the Netsky, Mytob and Stratio malware remain rooted in second, third and fourth place respectively, between them accounting for one third of all malware reports.
'The Dorf malware, or 'Storm Trojan', moved at gale force speeds and battered inboxes worldwide in an attempt to compromise users' PCs,' said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos.
'Though not a particularly sophisticated form of attack, preying upon public interest by using breaking news events is a tried and trusted trick. It has proven to be a remarkably effective method of fooling recipients into lowering their guard.'
More than 2,500 variants of the Dorf malware have been found- almost a third of the new threats identified during January 2007.
The proportion of infected email, while substantially higher than in December 2006, is still small at just one in 238 (0.42 per cent).
What do you think? Email us at: [email protected]
Further Reading: