Microsoft: 'Be careful with tailgate trojans'

Many PC systems running Windows operating systems have been turned into "zombies" by hackers, while rootkits have not spread so much.

Microsoft has released statistics showing that more than 60% of Windows PC systems have been found to be infected with malicious "bot" software when scanned using the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. The Microsoft tool has removed at least one version of the software that allows remote system control over about 3.5 million PCs.

"The backdoor Trojan is really tangible threats to users of Windows-based PC systems ," Microsoft said.

PCs infected with trojans - or more commonly known as "zombie PCs" - can be used to build "bot" systems - also called "botnets" - for the purpose of sending spam or launching attacks. Not only that, hackers can also steal information on the "zombie PC" itself or install spyware, adware on it to benefit from the programmers. spyware and adware software.

Microsoft officially launched the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool last year. Every month, Microsoft also offers to upgrade the software along with security updates. The tool aims to identify and remove all malware on the user's system. Since the far away days, this tool has operated about 2.7 billion times over 270 million systems.

For more than 15 months of operation, the tool has discovered a total of 5.7 million Windows-based systems infected with malware and removed 16 million malware on these systems.

Backdoor trojan is the most common threat. Next, computer worms spread via email - statistics show that this type of security threat is detected on more than 1 million PC systems. Meanwhile, only rootkits have been discovered and removed over 780,000 PC systems.

Rookit is an emerging security threat but has yet to reach a widespread level, Microsoft concluded. This is in stark contrast to McAfee's security research in April when the company confirmed that the number of rootkits is growing dramatically.

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool only detected rookit over 14% of the 5.7 million PC systems that have infected malware. And in about 20% of cases of rootkit infections, it also infected backdoor trojans.

The top 5 security threats that Microsoft offers are bot, Sdbot, Parite, Gaobot and FURootkit.

Hoang Dung