Adware and spyware are now ... rootkits

According to security firm F-Secure, the number of rootkits that attacked Windows operating systems discovered this year has increased rapidly.

This is the result of adware and spyware businesses that use more sophisticated techniques to hide and prevent their applications from being uninstalled.

To prove their point, F-Secure gave a concrete example: ContextPlus - adware developer Apropos and PeopleOnPage adware - is the company responsible for a large number of rootkit infections.

BlackLight technology from F-Secure has helped the company discover the "advanced rootkit technology" in Apropos software - a spyware that collects web access habits and system information on computers. of the user to send to ContextPlus. Unlike computer worms or common bots that use rootkit technology to avoid detection and destruction, Apropos uses rootkit technology to hide its operation under the operating system.

Mikko Hypponen, a senior expert at F-Secure, said Microsoft's statistics on rootkits are quite similar to F-Secure figures. 'In the 9 months since we launched BlackLight technology, we have discovered similar things that Microsoft has seen.'

Meanwhile, Microsoft announced that up to 20% of the malicious software that attacked Windows XP Service Pack 2 operating system in the past year were ' hidden rootkits '.