Robert Martis
Joined: 14 May 2005
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 7:49 pm Post subject: Virus writers are more intent on obtaining personal data |
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Back in the good old days of computer viruses, malicious hackers wrote them for notoriety alone. Now, it's all about the money.
The Sober-N virus, which is responsible for roughly 80 percent of all virus reports and 5 percent of all global e-mail volume currently, is a fine example that viruses are used increasingly to obtain personal information and access to bank-account numbers, passwords and other sensitive financial data.
The Sober-N virus dwarfs the virus currently in the second place, which represents just over 6 percent of all virus reports and accounts for just 0.4 percent of all e-mail traffic.
It got so big, so quickly, because its writers probably used spam technology to distribute it in the first place. This shows the tendency that those who would launch malware into the public realm are doing it with more intention to distribute it more widely than ever before.
Once opened and launched on a personal computer, such malware often attempts to install software that captures a user's keystrokes, with the aim of gaining access to user's personal data.
For more information on the Sober-N virus, see Sober-N Virus: Now It's All About Money |
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