The malware numbers game: how many viruses are out there?

[JMH]

Summary:
How many distinct strains of malware are in circulation today?
If you said hundreds of thousands or millions, you’re way off.
A close look at numbers from one leading security company helps explain why some big numbers don’t tell the whole story.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/the-malware-numbers-game-how-many-viruses-are-out-there/4783

 

[Corrine]

Ed should take a look at *S!Ri's blog. It nicely illustrates how the same malware is re-used with slight modifications over and over. For example, looking at the rogue.fakevimes, the latest version is Windows Antivirus Patch. There are over 50 other versions in the family, each slightly different. After all, there is no money in paying for malware code if it can't be reused. Scroll down the page at S!Ri.URZ and note that even the same GUI is reused.

(*S!Ri was the developer of Smitfraudfix, one of the early tools used for removing rogues. He is a member of the Malwarebytes team as a Research Engineer.)