The rise is attributed to 'Rotbrow,' a type of malware that downloads other bad programs
By Jeremy KirkMay 7, 2014 09:04 AM ET IDG News Service - A three-fold increase in Microsoft Windows computers infected with malicious software in late 2013 came from an application that was for some time classified as harmless by security companies.The finding comes as part of Microsoft's latest biannual Security Intelligence Report (SIR), released on Wednesday, which studies security issues encountered by more than 800 million computers using its security tools.
In the third quarter of 2013, an average of 5.8 Windows computers out of every 1,000 were infected with malware, said Tim Rains, director of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing division, which tracks security trends targeting the company's widely used products. That jumped to about 17 computers per 1,000 for the last quarter of the year.
Rains attributed the rise to malware called "Rotbrow." The program masquerades as a browser add-on called "Browser Protector" and is supposedly a security product, Rains said by phone Wednesday. Rotbrow was found on about 59 of every 1,000 computers using its security products, he said.
For some time, computer security companies didn't classify Rotbrow as malicious software. Rotbrow is known as a "dropper," with capabilities to download other software on a computer. It didn't initially download malware to computers it was installed on, Rains said.
But then Rotbrow started downloading malicious browser extensions. Microsoft noticed the change and alerted other security companies, which then began blocking it.
The tactic, which had been used by fake antivirus programs in the past, meant that Rotbrow was already installed on a huge number of computers.
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Daniel ;)
