No main threat in March malware muddle

The main malware objective is still to steal money or personal information

The top malware threats for March were shared among a broad list of dangerous items with no clear leader, according to security firm Eset. 

The latest statistics from Eset's ThreatSense.Net, which reports on data received from millions of computers around the world about detected attacks, shows that criminal malware is prevalent across a number of areas. 

"March data shows that the malware field is fairly evenly distributed, with just a half a per cent difference between the top five," said Paul Brook, managing director of Eset UK.

"It is obvious from the various payloads that the main objective is still to steal money or personal information.

"But the fact that there is no clear leader in the top 10 could indicate that malware writers think that a multi-layered approach is just as good a strategy for attack as it is for defence."

Out of the top 10 ranking threats, the Agent.NCC trojan constituted more than two per cent of all threats. Detected as Win32/PSW.Agent.NCC, this Trojan is used to steal passwords through key-logging.

Second in the ranking for March is Netsky.Q, which reached 1.77 per cent of all detections last month.

The Netsky family is one of the most prevalent ever to hit the wild. Still in the top 10 more than a year after its initial discovery, Netsky.Q and its relatives show no sign of disappearing any time soon.

In third place is Win32/TrojanDownloader.Agent.AWF, which reached 1.69 per cent of detections during last month.

This threat is used for downloading other malware from websites to create botnets that are then used for propagating spam and launching denial of service attacks attacks.