This excerpt is from Mieke Verburgh. (Assistant Director of Research at Malwarebytes Corporation)’s blog and explains the current state of malware pretty nicely:
Through the years, malware has become more difficult to find (rootkits etc..), more stubborn to remove and more nastier in general. One click on a file or link can already download and install a huge malware bundle where many different infections are installed. You see popups all the time, your desktop wallpaper has been changed with a “fake alert”, displaying that your computer is infected (well, it IS infected, but these “fake alerts” ask to purchase their own product in order to remove the malware they installed in the first place). Although the fake alerts and popups/advertisements you get is the most annoying part and look the worst, as a matter of fact, it’s the least of your concerns. What is hiding in the background is a more serious issue. Trojans in general, such as backdoors, password stealers, keyloggers etc.. all have their own purposes and may damage a lot! And as I said, all of the above can be installed via one single click on one link or file! Hence, I’ve even seen file infectors/worms/bots joining the party as well. Problem is still, many are not aware what the other malware does, or is capable of – and are already satisfied if the annoying popups don’t display anymore, their desktop background has been fixed etc.. Then they don’t need further help anymore because they think that their issue is already resolved while the biggest problem is still present, silently doing its job in the background. They are not aware that their computer is still severly infected and badly compromised… and responsible for infecting other computers on top. And what is worrying me the most is that some don’t even care – as long as the annoying popups are gone. Malware compromises/damages a lot, that’s a fact – and especially in case of a severly infected computer, even if I clean the malware off the computer, I cannot guarantee that the computer will be clean afterwards, because these infections/bundles leave a lot of leftovers behind that most scanners won’t even recognise and logs won’t show. Also, I cannot promise that I can repair all the damage it caused… Even after cleaning the malware, errors may still be present afterwards because of the damage. Solving these is not always possible since it will be searching for a needle in a haystack to find the right cause and solution.
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