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Security software company, Sophos, in its mid-year security report issued on Wednesday has said that Trojan Horse programs, particularly ransomware, or software that takes control of a computer and demands money in exchange for access to files, are growing in popularity. According to Sophos, the existence of Trojans, or malware masquerading as legitimate computer programs, now outnumbers viruses and worms four to one. Sophos identifies ransomware as a new and particularly dangerous threat, since it confiscates a user's files and forces payment in exchange for access. It points to Zippo as one example of ransomware, released this year in March, which demands $300 for users to regain access to their own encrypted files. Another example is Ransom-A, which demands $10.99 paid through Western Union and threatens to delete a file every 30 minutes until payment is made. According to the report, the mass-mailed worms and viruses of the last few years are now being overtaken in popularity by malwares, targeted at a small group of Internet users which often lead to financial gain. Today, unlike earlier years, cyber criminals are more interested in financial gains than bragging about the proliferation of a virus generated by them. Interestingly, the report says these scamsters avoid using mass mailing tactics for fear of getting caught. According to the report, e-mail viruses are down to one in every 91 pieces of mail for the first six months of this year, vs. one in every 35 reported for the same period last year. In a new development in the world of spamming, that continues the trend of the financial nature of cyber attacks, messages extolling the virtues of a certain stock have become popular. In this scam, spammers buy penny stocks and tout the value of the stock through spam, seeking to inflate the price of the stock so that spammers can sell the stock at a profit. One example occurred in mid-June with a company called Southern Cosmetics in the USA, whose stock price went up by a factor of six, thanks to persistent spamming. The report says that the number of threats plaguing Internet users continues to grow. The company identified 180,292 different viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans and other malware during the first half of 2006, up from 140,118 during the same period last year. Sophos is a leading security software developer providing businesses, education and government protection against viruses, spyware, adware, Trojans, intrusions, spam and policy abuse. The Sophos report, is a mid-year update to the company's annual security report released in December of 2005.
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