TaterF top malware threat in November, says Microsoft
Monday, November 23, 2009
A worm targeting online gaming credentials has been the single most prevalent online threat in the month of November, according to statistics from Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool.
TaterF spreads rapidly and hits enterprise users particularly hard, moving from home PCs to business machines via infected USB drives and other portable storage devices, according to Dark Reading. Microsoft's recently released Security Intelligence Report says that there were 4.9 million computers infected with TaterF during the first half of this year, compared to 2 million from a year ago, suggesting that the TaterF worm may be undergoing something of a renaissance.
TaterF and similar password thieves targeting online gamers have been primarily seen in China, but infection rates seem to be on the rise worldwide. Players of World of Warcraft, EVE Online, and EverQuest are among the targets of TaterF.
Rogue anti-virus software - classified, for the purposes of Microsoft's reporting as Trojans - remain among the most critical online threats going forward, causing a great deal of financial hardship and computer down-time.
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