Rootkits Still Dominate the Security Threats

Adware - Spyware : Rootkits Still Dominate the Security Threats

Posted by Max on 2007/12/17 1:29:26 (763 reads)

As PCWorld stated, Prevx malware researchers have drawn attention to the dramatic increase in the number of PCs harboring rootkit infections.

During a two-month period research, the Prevx CSI malware scanner was used to scan over 725,000 PCs. One in six PCs scanned within October 2007 was infected with some form of spyware or malware .

Although rootkits were identified on 15.6% of PCs in that same period, a considerable growth up to 22% was noticed at the beginning of December which prompted Prevx's Jacques Erasmus to predict the rise of the rootkits to a new dangerous level.

The thing with rootkits is that they are frequently 'dropped' or buried by other bugs. Afterwards they alter a PC's operating system to prevent both the user and any security tools installed on the computer from seeing them. Consequently, rootkits can enable hackers to distantly monitor, record, change, steal and transfer information from the victim's PC.

Traditional antivirus and antispyware programs prove themselves often to be inefficient with some rootkits which are untraceable. You may think that your computer is safe from this kind of threat and unsuspectingly proceed with passing on important personal and financial data.

Prevx’s popularity may increase greatly as only in the first nine days of Deccember, 93 companies resorted to the free Business scan feature of Prevx CSI. A number of 68 of these companies were found to have at least one infected PC. A number of thirteen companies, had rootkit infections on at least one of their PCs.

The same Erasmus also pointed out that both consumers and businesses have now a major new danger to security and privacy they have to look out for, as rootkits are pretty hard to remove since they have proved to be an unreachable target for conventional antivirus, antispyware and internet security suites.

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Poster	Thread
douchrti	Posted: 2007/12/17 8:40 Updated: 2007/12/17 8:40
Just popping in Joined: 2007/1/11 From: California Posts: 1	Re: Rootkits Still Dominate the Security Threats Great Article, Funny though, Ive havent seen a rootkit on a puter for years. I guess the reason is because there are so many puters out there now and years back there was not. Makes you think though, what a market these thieves have with so many users that have no idea about the safety of their securtity.