Zombie haunts Windows computers

According to a new Microsoft security report, malware used to hijack remote computers (often called zombies) remains the biggest threat to Windows-based computers.

Only in the first 6 months of 2006, experts discovered about 43,000 variants of this type of software. Microsoft's security report on October 22 confirmed that this is the most powerful type of malware. Microsoft also warned about the "zombie threat" for Windows-based computers in June this year.

The Microsoft report contains: ' Attackers, with an economic goal in mind, are clearly focusing on developing this kind of malware '.

Data collected by Microsoft with the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool shows that of the 4 million computers that use Windows that were found to be infected with malware in the first half of this year, up to 2 million infections were hijacked. from far away.

Although the number of computers turned into zombies is increasing, the rate of infection of this type of malware is decreasing. In 2005, Microsoft recorded 68% of computers using Windows infected with backdoor Trojans.

The Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool was introduced in January 2005 and is upgraded once a month. This tool has the function of finding and removing malicious software. This is not necessarily a good sign because hackers are moving to use more sophisticated and effective web attack techniques. Besides the strategy of scaling down the botnet (network of computers turned into zombies) to erase the trail after the attack. In addition, hackers often steal victims' data and install spyware or adware to be "shared" from spyware / adware writers.

Meanwhile, rootkits, the malicious code that helps malicious software 'hide' in the system, has not caused great harm like Sophos warned. The attack rate using rootkits has dropped by 50% over the past 6 months, Microsoft said.

HOANG MINH