Spain: Trojans accounted for more than half of all new malware in 2006
53.6 percent of the new malware samples in 2006 were Trojans. The number of new variants of Trojans appearing increased throughout 2006, especially during the last quarter.
Trojans are a type of malicious code used to obtain confidential data such as bank account passwords. The large number of new variants in 2006 is due to the fact that this type of malware is ideally suited to the current trend of using malware for fraud. Spyware, however, gathers information about the target user, such as web pages visited, searches made, etc, allowing companies that use it to generate more personalized and profitable advertising. Despite their differences, Trojans and spyware have a common objective: to aid criminals to obtain money.
Bots are the second malware category with most variants in circulation (14%), whereas backdoor Trojans come third with 13.6 percent. Bots are programs that go resident on computers, awaiting ‘commands’ from their creators, who can then take control of the affected system to carry out activities such as spamming. Backdoor Trojans are programs that let attackers access computers remotely.
Both bots and backdoor Trojans have proved to be very useful for those looking for financial gain, and that’s the reason for their proliferation. On occasions, they have served as platforms for cyber-criminals to spread other types of malware, through so-called botnets, which allow attackers to command all computers infected by a bot to download certain spyware or Trojan from a web page.
