INF/Autorun, Conficker, Sirefef are the Most Common Malware in July 2012

According to the ESET security firm, the top malware threat internationally in July 2012 was INF/Autorun. ESET also confirms from their malware statistics for July 2012, that this is the third year in a row that INF/Autorun has had a 5.46% infection rate worldwide.

The INF/Autorun threat is associated with a variety of malware utilizing the autorun.inf as a means of compromising a computer. Computer experts and advanced PC users normally identify autorun.inf as a file containing information on programs used to automatically run or load when removable media is attached to a PC, ie: USB Flash drives or CD-ROM.

Coming in second place for having a worldwide infection rate of 3.37%, is the threat HTML/ScrInject.B possessing the ability to redirect users to malicious download files or sites.

After the HTML/ScrInject.B infection comes the infamous Conficker worm ranked third with an international infection rate of 3.29%. The Conficker worm is a threat that originally spread through a widely-exploited Windows vulnerability.

Win32/Sirefef is a multicomponent malware threat that takes 4th place on ESET's list of most common malware threats in July 2012, with a 2.78% international infection rate. Win32/Sirefef has many different variations and components, which may have slightly different behaviors from downloading and executing random files, to disabling security functions and connecting to remote hosts.

Other malware threats topping ESET's list of most common malware threats in July 2012 are as follows:

5th place Win32/Dorkbot – An international infection rate of 1.65% - An IRC-based work known for spreading through social networks, removable drives and instant messenger applications.

6th place Win32/Sality – An international infection rate of 1.33% - A polymorphic virus that infects executable files.

7th place JS/Trojandownloader.Iframe - An international infection rate of 1.26% - Trojan horse that is able to change web browser settings to redirect users to sites harboring malicious software.

8th place Win32/Ramnit - An international infection rate of 1.17% - An internet worm capable of spreading infected email messages.

9th place JS/Iframe – An international infection rate of 0.98% - A JavaScript-attacking Trojan horse with many different variations.

ESET's Global July 2012 Most Common Malware Threats

Compare ESET's July 2012 Most Common Malware Threats to the year 2011's in the ESET chart below.