Security specialist Panda Software has warned users not to be fooled by the apparent lack of major virus scares, as there is still a huge amount of malware released every month. 

Cyber-criminals are more discreet these days, avoiding widespread epidemics that grab the headlines and play into the hands of the security companies which make the public more aware of their activities.

Malware writers now aim to infect as many computers as possible without raising suspicion, using malicious software that can be used to commit cyber-crime and return healthy profits, according to the Panda report detailing the top 10 malware in August.

An example of this is the Microsoft MS06-040 vulnerability, which would have caused an epidemic if it had occurred a few years ago. 

Examples of malware are detected every day that take advantage of this flaw, but they have been designed to act discreetly, according to Panda's report.

The most commonly detected malware in August was once again Sdbot.ftp, a script used by the Sdbot family of worms to download themselves to computers via FTP.

Second place was Jupillites.G, while in third came the old-timer Netsky.P which exploits a vulnerability in Internet Explorer to run itself automatically when reaching a computer.

Fourth was the Sinowal.BV Trojan, followed by Bagle.pwdzip, which comprises several variants of the Bagle worm that spread via email in a password-protected Zip file.

W32/Parite.B, a polymorphic virus that infects executables files with a .exe extension, and the Downloader.IOL Trojan, designed to download other files onto the target system, were sixth and seventh in the ranking respectively.

Last were Exploit/Metafile Ailis.A.worm, which replicates by creating copies of itself without infecting other files to saturate computers and networks, preventing users from working, and Qhost.gen, a generic detection of a modification to the Hosts file.