NOW READ THIS
("Security Advisory")
Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0429 Experts Note Increased Use of Hybrid Worms:
Panda Security researchers have observed that over the past few months there has been
an increase in the number of worm strains capable of stealing data. Criminal hackers
are increasingly deploying hybrid worms engineered to steal confidential information
from unwitting internet users. Worms comprised 17.6% of all malware infections in
February, up from 15% in January. Trojans accounted for 23.7% of infections and have
remained steady for the past several months, but worms have increased for the second
month in a row.
The new generation of worms is increasingly sophisticated and capable of acting in a
Trojan-like way. Until recently, most worms were designed solely to spread from one
computer to another. Over the past few months, however, there has been an increase
in the number of worm strains capable of stealing data, making it increasingly difficult
to classify malware specimens into one category or another.
(vnunet.com 04MAR08)