Top ten security threats (virus and trojan) list for October 2003

I've received from Symantec a release with information on virus threats for the month of October 2003. According to Symantec Security Response these are the top 10 virus worldwide and in the Asia Pacific region:

GLOBAL TOP TEN THREATS

W32.Bugbear.B@mm

W32.Swen.A@mm

HTML.Redlof.A

Trojan.Bootconf

W32.Klez.H@mm

W32.Blaster.Worm

W32.Dumaru@mm

W32.Welchia.Worm

W95.Hybris.worm

Trojan.Startpage

ASIA PACIFIC TOP TEN THREATS

HTML.Redlof.A

W32.Swen.A@mm

W32.Welchia.Worm

W32.Bugbear.B@mm

W32.Blaster.Worm

Trojan.Bootconf

W32.Nolor@mm

W95.Hybris.worm

Trojan.PWS.QQPass

W32.HLLW.Raleka

There are several trojans that make it into the top ten malicious threats list for October including Trojan.Bootconf and Trojan.PWS.QQPass.E. A trojan is a program that neither replicates or copies itself but does damage or compromises the security of the computer. Typically, it relies on someone emailing it to a user – it does not email itself.

Trojan.Bootconf is a trojan Horse that modifies the TCP/IP settings to point to a different DNS server. It will also change your home page and search page in Internet Explorer to connect to out.true-counter.com.

Trojan.PWS.QQPass.E is another variant of the Trojan.PWS.QQPass family. It is a password-stealing Trojan Horse that steals passwords and user information. The Trojan is a Visual Basic application that requires the presence of Microsoft Visual Basic run-time libraries for it to run.

Althought there are currently no virus for the Windows Mobile platform and only a few proof of concepts developed for the Palm OS, it's important to be aware of the possibility of this happening. Geekzone reviewed the Symantec Antivirus for Handhelds before.