Security software failing to stop malware

Almost 28% of computers with installed security protection scanned at the Infected or Not website last week were infected with some kind of malicious code.

As for computers with no protection installed, the infection rate was 40%, said Panda Security, which runs the site.

MyWebSearch was the malware most frequently detected by the separate TotalScan system, Panda Security's online scanner for detecting active and latent malware.

MyWebSearch is a Pup (Potentially Unwanted Program) that installs a toolbar that changes results displayed by some search engines to redirect users to certain vendors' web pages.

There were eight Pups among the top ten malicious pieces of code detected by TotalScan.

Luis Corrons, technical director at PandaLabs, said, "One of the reasons for the widespread distribution of this type of malware is the fact that many users think it is harmless. However, it poses a threat to their privacy, and some malware is capable of downloading other types of malicious code, including Trojans, on to infected systems."

Position        Malware type       Name

1                  Pup                      MyWebSearch

2                  Pup                      FunWeb

3                  Pup                      KillApp.B

4                  Pup                      HideWindow.S

5                  Pup                      Processor

6                  Adware                CWS

7                  Worm                   ZLFake.A.drp

8                  Adware                WhenUSearch

9                  Pup                       RealSpy

10                Pup                       CloseApp