Rene Millman

Sasser-style outbreaks unlikely to reappear as hackers try to slip under anti-virus radar

Malware writers are going to become more professional in 2007 and mass virus outbreaks will be a thing of the past, an anti-virus expert predicts.

Dave Marcus, security research manager at anti-virus firm McAfee's Avert research labs said that the industry is seeing evidence of the rise of professional and organised crime in malware creation, "where development teams are creating malicious software, testing it and automating its production and release."

He said that 35 per cent of all malware samples ever discovered had been collected in the last two years alone.

"This speaks volumes about what malware writers are up to. There are hardly any mass outbreaks, such as Sasser, anymore," said Marcus. "These cause too much attention. Malware has simply become a way to make money. It has taken virus authors in a different direction."

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