“The Rise of the Rootkits has begun” are the words of Jacques Erasmus from Prevx who commented recently on the increase in the use of Rootkits.
“Significantly, although rootkits were detected on 15.6 percent of PCs during October 2007, that figure had risen to 22 percent by early December.”
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This indeed shows that there has been an enormous increase in the use of Rootkits in one month alone and the trend is very much upward. The Rootkit List shows that since Nov 1st there has been 79 rootkit related stealth malware creations found by leading IT Security Companies. November has been one of the biggest months of the year so far for new found rootkit creations and variations. This could be down to the fact that online criminals are getting their arsenal ready for Christmas when a lot of people will be buying presents online.
The Prevx results have come from information gathered from the Prevx Online Scanner. This online scanner was used mostly by users who suspected something was wrong with their PC. The Rootkit files found by the Prex online scanner include NDT2.SYS , SROSA.SYS, UNPR.SYS, FMTR.SYS, and INDT2.SYS.
It seems also that a lot of businesses are being caught off guard by Rootkits. “In the first nine days of this month alone, 93 companies used the free Business scan feature of Prevx CSI. Of these companies, 68 had one or more infected PCs. Thirteen companies, or 14 percent, had one or more PCs harbouring rootkit infections.”
To check your PC for Rootkits check out the Antirootkit Software Page.
To check out the Free Prevx Scan http://www.prevx.com/freescan.asp.
Keep Safe,
regards
Steo