Bots and Adware top threats for 2005: McAfee

McAfee Avert has reported that Bots and Mass Mailers are still the predominant method by which virus writers impact enterprises, whereas Exploits and Adware account for over 60% of the malicious threats significantly impacting consumer and home users. 

Based on reports, McAfee Avert anticipates that Adware and unwanted content, transmitted via email and the Web, will continue to increase in 2005, with programs becoming increasingly complex. As the year progresses, threats will be combined with Spam and

phishing. 

It is also anticipated that successful phishing schemes will continue to increase throughout 2005 due to a general lack of consumer awareness. Additionally, the number of exploits that attack discovered vulnerabilities will increase as more vulnerabilities are discovered and disclosed. These assessments are based on Avert's conclusions that today's programs are evolving rapidly, and could at some point, succeed mass mailers, the dominant threat of the past six years.

According to McAfee, the top 10 threats in 2004 include Adware-180, Adware-Gator, Exploit-ByteVerify, Exploit-MhtRedir, JS/Noclose, W32/Bagle, W32/Mydoom, W32/Netsky, W32/Sasser and W32/Sdbot (family including sdbot, gaobot, polybot, spybot). It also reports that threats using vulnerable systems in 2004 totaled more than 380, exceeding totals in 2003 by approximately 50%. Vulnerabilities discovered in 2004 totaled more than 2,800, which is down by 25% from 2003. In an effort to address the above threats and malicious programs, McAfee Avert recommends both McAfee enterprises and consumers to constantly stay updated with the latest DATs, install the latest patches, employ current spam filters and implement a multi-layered approach to detect and block attacks.

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