WinVistaClub : Microsoft Security Intelligence Report

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Microsoft Security Intelligence Report - H2 2007.

April 23th, 2008. Microsoft has released its latest July - December 2007 volume of the Security Intelligence Report. This report focuses on the second half of the 2007 calendar year (from July through December) and builds upon the data published in the previously released volumes of the SIR. Using data derived from several hundred million Windows users, and some of the busiest online services on the Internet, this report provides an in-depth perspective on trends in software vulnerability disclosures as well as trends in the malicious and potentially unwanted software landscape, and an update on trends in software vulnerability exploits.

Here are some of its findings in brief:

1) The total amount of malware removed from computers worldwide via the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) increased over 40% during the second half of 2007. By the end of this period the MSRT executed on more than 450 million unique computers worldwide per month.

2) During the second half of 2007 there was a 300% increase in the number of trojan downloaders and droppers detected and removed. Clearly this category of malware has become a tool of choice for some attackers.

3) Adware remained the most prevalent category of potentially unwanted software in the second half of 2007

4) Phishing is still predominantly an English-language phenomenon. Once a largely e-mail based phenomenon, phishing attempts are increasingly being posted to social networks, exploiting the trust that victims place in these networks and in the social contacts with whom they have connected through them.

5) The top potentially unwanted software family detected in the second half of 2007 was Win32/Hotbar. Win32/Hotbar installs a dynamic toolbar in Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer and delivers targeted pop-up ads based on its monitoring of Web-browsing activity.

6) The prevalence of rogue security software continues to increase, with many common families being delivered by trojan downloaders and other malware, as well as by conventional social engineering methods. The most prevalent rogue security software detected in the second half of 2007 was Win32/Winfixer.

7) Win32/Nuwar, also called the Storm Worm, is an example of a Trojan dropper. It arrives in an e-mail, enticing recipients to visit a Web site, and then installs a Trojan on the computer that provides back-door access. The worm has been continually updated to avoid detection and now more than half a million systems have been infected worldwide creating a botnet, the report says.

8) During 2H07 the MSRT proportionally cleaned malware from 60% less Windows Vista-based computers compared to computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2. Similar to the malware infection trends observed across Windows operating systems, significantly less potentially unwanted software, such as spyware and adware, was found on Windows Vista based systems than on Windows XP SP2 based systems.

You can download the report/s Here.

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