Malware lingers months on infected PCs
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Malware stays around on infected PCs far longer than previously thought, according to the latest research from Trend Micro.
Previous estimates suggested that a compromised machine remains infected for approximately six weeks. Based on an analysis of around 100 million compromised IPs, Trend Micro concludes that many infected IPs are infected (or repeatedly infected) for more than two years, with a median infection length of 300 days. Four in five compromised machines are infected for more than a month.
A graph from Trend Micro suggests that if systems aren't disinfected quickly then infection tends to linger around indefinitely, possibly until the point users exchange compromised boxes for new machines.
Trend's study also looked at the botnet landscape. Three strains of botnet agent - Koobface, Zeus/Zbot and Ilomo/Clampi - are causing the most damage in terms of identity theft.
The Koobface botnet, for example, has co-opted around 51,000 machines into its ranks. Koobface uses between five and six command and control centers (C&C) to control these zombie clients at any one time. If a particular control domain is taken down by a particular provider, then botnet herders behind the malware establishes a new command outpost elsewhere. Between the middle of March and mid-August 2009, Trend Micro recorded around 46 Koobface control domains.
Trend's stats don't cover dormant infections by the Conficker worm. Stats from the Anti-Conficker Working Group suggest the malware is still resident on more than five million compromised machines. ®
COMMENTS
@cookiecutter
The remote management thing is a good point (as of now anyway), but this article was about infected machines staying infected for months on end -- hardly likely in a "managed" environment like that.
On the "home" front, if someone wants to connect to her job, she should have a job-issued laptop/desktop. As a "personal go to guy", I might help with setting up Firefox+Adblock+basic precautions/education as someone up there suggested, but I probably wouldn't install Linux -- I don't mess with someone else's "work" stuff unless it is "work" for me too.
The video webchat thing -- lets just say you threw in "MSN" as bait. I'm not a big user but last time I checked, skype worked fine.
The old "everyone else is using it, so I have to use it too" argument may be genuine in *some* special cases, but in all but one of the dozen+ people I maintain computers for (personally, no cost) a little digging has revealed that there is no *real* need -- it was more a perception.
And finally, if you really are using Linux at home, the least you can do is stop calling us "fanboys". Most of us -- in real life if not on El Reg ;-) -- are perfectly reasonable people.
Ubuntu is not the answer to everything...
42 is....
But seriously, Ubuntu + 2 hours training = win? Seriously?
So me dear old ma wants msn to do a webcam enabled chat with my sister abroad, and that just works does it?
Or she wants to connect in to her job, they gave her a program thingy that will do it and all she does is click the padlock then the satellite, this of course also just works because
the faithful say so.
(in other words initiate the cisco VPN client, connect then RDP to her work machine).
Stop talking shite fanboys, and live in the real world for a day. Maybe, just maybe your dream of desktop linux will never be a reality because maybe, just maybe, not every clueless user is clueless about all subjects and all things, and may require something a bit more practical than a brown desktop and funny taskbar as a solution to an issue.
Also, get a job in actual IT, y'know, in the real world. When there is more than 5 pc's to look after.
Come back when you can control policies for as many or as few users as you like centrally and without fuss, with the wealth of information and others who have had similar problems to those you may face, and all from a seamlessly integrated suite of management tools. Oh, and all your clients use Office's VB features extensively.
The first reply to mention OOo gets shot in the spine for chronic lack of real world experience.
And at work, it is as real as it gets, and the decisions about what to use arent made by you or anyone literate in matters of Information Technology.
All that matters to them is the information, and the ease with which sites A and B communicate.
I should mention that i am in fact a linux fan. I use kubuntu at home as my main OS, with Gnome flavoured ubuntu on my secondary box(eve player....), but my lappy has vista/xp dual boot because frankly, thats what the majority design for.
So shall we retreat back under our respective bridges, and ditch belief based hyperbole in favor of evidence based reasoning for a change?
@Anonymous Coward
Sigh...
Right click on the Start button and select Explore for the default Windows Explorer view. Certain folders open automatically, all the folders in the C:\ drive are displayed. I seem to remember that the next thing you have to do is to close something up.
Or you can go to My Docs - and it opens up with a tree showing docs and settings for all users etc etc etc.
In Ubuntu - click Places then Home - and you are in you directory which holds all your docs. Simple. Less is more etc etc.
Ubuntu is not going to free us from oppression - that would be an insult to people who are genuinely oppressed - it is simply a better operating system. The reason I recommend it to other techies is this. If you are faced with the usual knackered Windows PC don't bother trying to fix it by reinstalling Windows - your time will cost the user more than buying a new PC - it will be slow to use and will not run everything properly - and it will be borked again soon.
Just install Ubuntu instead - you only have to charge for a couple of hours install and initial training - the users will be happy.
Even installing a printer is easier - I plugged in a HP CP 1515n to the LAN - selected add new printer, Ubuntu found it on the network, clicked next and job was done.
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