Microsoft fights gaming Trojan menace
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Microsoft is claiming big successes in its efforts to to rescue gamers from malware.
The latest (June) edition of Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) included a device to remove password stealers from infected machines. MSRT is a basic anti-malware tool designed to zap prevalent forms of malware. Signature updates to the optional package are updated at the same time Microsoft releases security patches, the second Tuesday of every month (Patch Tuesday).
Historically the MSRT utility was created to mop up instances of worm infections from the likes of Nimda, but its role has expanded over the years to include attempts to control the spread of the Storm worm (Trojan) and beyond. The June update to the tool added detection for password stealing Trojans of a type commonly used to grab online gaming passwords.
Strains of malware, such as Taterf, steal login credentials for online games (Lineage Online and World of Warcraft are among the most popular targets). Many of the Trojans originate in eastern Asia (particularly China).
Taterf spreads across network shares. If you plug a USB stick into an infected machine, that gets the pox too. Another prevalent Trojan - Frethog - uses browser exploits.
Neither technique is particularly advanced. Nonetheless both Trojans have become a big hit over recent weeks, spreading farther than anybody previously thought, according to Microsoft's clean-up stats.
After adding detection for Taterf to its MSRT tool on 10 June, Redmond cleaned-up Taterf component infections from more than 700,000 machines on the first day and 1.27 million in a little under a fortnight. Another strain of password stealing Trojan - Frethog - was removed from 200,000 machines on day one and 652,000 machines by last Friday.
By comparison, the Storm worm was removed from under 350,000 machines in the first month that detection was added to MSRT.
Matt McCormack, a security researcher at Microsoft and gamer, posits the theory that part of the reason for the high incidents of infection might be that gamers avoid running anti-virus software out of concerns it might impair the performance of their machines. This risk is compounded by the fact that many gamers fail to practice safe computing. "Downloading dodgy copies of games and the cracks to match make you much more likely to get infected," McCormack notes in a post to Microsoft's threat response and research blog here. ®
COMMENTS
It's targeting people who download WoW cracks....
shouldn't they be warning people to beware of geeks bearing gifts?
Mine's the one with the picture of Helen O'Loy in the pocket...
@ pctechxp
I agree, I have Avast running on an old 1.5ghz p4 (xp), a newer 2.4ghz amd (xp), an amd dual core vista prem (it came with the frame!), and a Windows Home Server and in each case, the before and after were negligible. Now my old piii... that's a different story. That thing couldn't run xp all that well, so has been my ubuntu play box and may actually become an xbmc if I get off my lazy rear. (Incidently, for the penguin fans, even Ubuntu became bloated on that machine with 7.1 had to downgrade back to 7.04 as 7.04 lasted A LOT longer on the battery, didn't tax the machine much and actually worked better overall. Yes, even linux has feature creep.
use Avast!
Which dynamically loads and unloads the scanning components as needed
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