Rogue security software 'remains biggest threat to businesses'
2009-11-04
Rogue security software is still the top threat for organisations to look out for, according to recent Microsoft research, which may be cause for concern for those organisations seeking to avoid a data breach.
This is despite the fact that 20 per cent fewer customers were affected by rogue infections over the past six months, the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIRv7) revealed. Also known as scareware, rogue security software makes use of peoples' desire to protect their computers.
Microsoft advised getting hold of an anti-malware solution from a trustworthy company and keeping its threat definitions up to date.
The study also found that worm infections in the enterprise rose by nearly 100 per cent during the first half of 2009 in comparison to the preceding six months.
SIRv7 revealed that Conficker was the top worm threat for businesses as its process of propagation works more effectively in a firewalled network environment.
Conficker was not ranked in the top ten threats for consumers as home computers are more likely to have automatic updating enabled, Microsoft explained. The organisation said that this highlights the need for organisations to have a robust security update management program.
Taterf, another worm family, saw detections rise by 156 per cent since the second half of 2008. This kind of worm targets massively multiplayer online role-playing games and relies more on access to unsecured file shares and removable storage volumes to spread, rather than social engineering.
"It's been said that knowledge is power - and when it comes to security intelligence, a lack of accurate information can be detrimental to separating real threats from hype," commented Vinny Gullotto, general manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center.
Symantec last month reported it had detected 250 separate fake programs being sold for between £20 and £60, which were sold on nearly 200,000 websites across the world.
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