{"id":10835,"date":"2011-11-03T19:15:49","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T23:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/?p=10835"},"modified":"2021-08-10T17:25:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T21:25:00","slug":"how-does-malware-spread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/how-does-malware-spread\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Malware Spread?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The ZDNet<\/a> Zero Day<\/a><\/em> blog reports<\/a> that Microsoft’s<\/a> (MSFT<\/a>) recently released Security Intelligence Report<\/a> identified socially engineered malware<\/a> (scareware pop-ups<\/a>; blackhat search engine optimization attacks<\/a>) enticing users into downloading and executing a malicious file as the most used malware propagation tactic.<\/p>\n

\"Scareware\"<\/a>Based on a sample of 600 million systems worldwide, MSFT research ranks AutoRun<\/a> USB<\/a> infection as the second most used malware propagation tactic, according to Zero Day<\/em>. Microsoft disabled AutoRun<\/a> by default on Windows XP<\/a> and Vista<\/a> in February to prevent malware infections. The results, at least according to Microsoft, have indicated a significant decline in malware using AutoRun as a spreading mechanism.<\/p>\n

The report also points out that zero-day flaws<\/a> do not necessarily represent a driving force in the growth of malicious attacks or cybercrime in general according to the ZDNet<\/em> blog. More propagation tactics:<\/p>\n