Sunbelt Software Announces Top Ten Spyware/Malware Threats for April

Market Wire, May, 2008

Sunbelt Software, a leading provider of Windows security and management software , today announced the top ten most prevalent spyware and malware threats for the month of April. The report, compiled from monthly scans performed by Sunbelt's award-winning antispyware tool, CounterSpy™, is a service of the Sunbelt Software Malware Research Labs.

New threats that appear for the first time in the top ten lists include the Trojan.Vxgame and Blaire threats. Trojan.Vxgame is a severe threat -- a Trojan program that silently downloads additional malware from the Internet and lowers a user's system security settings by disabling the Windows firewall. Blaire is also a high risk threat -- a worm distributed through mass emails. Once executed on a user's computer, it functions as a backdoor, opens illicit network connections and uses polymorphic tactics to self-mutate, disable security software, modify system files, and install additional malware.

The results represent the number of times a particular spyware or malware infection was detected during CounterSpy scans that report back to ThreatNet™, Sunbelt's community of opt-in users of CounterSpy.

The top ten most prevalent spyware threats for the month of April are:

     1.  Trojan.FakeAlert                        1.77%

     2.  Trojan-Downloader.Zlob.Media-Codec      1.30%

     3.  Trojan.NewMediaCodec                    0.67%

     4.  ClickSpring.PuritySCAN                  0.63%

     5.  Virtumonde                              0.53%

     6.  Slagent/Navipromo                       0.42%

     7.  CWS.DesktopHijack                       0.39%

     8.  Trojan.Vxgame                           0.39%

     9.  Blaire                                  0.37%

     10. Backdoor.Rbot                           0.35%

About Sunbelt Software's Malware Research Labs

The Sunbelt Software Malware Research Labs specializes in the discovery and analysis of dangerous vulnerabilities (i.e., security holes, bugs, maligned features or combination of operations) that could be exploited for Internet and email attacks. The research team actively researches new spyware outbreaks, creating and testing new spyware definitions on a constant basis. For detailed spyware research information and to view the top ten threats in real-time please visit Sunbelt Malware Research Labs .

About CounterSpy

Designed to be a one-stop solution to the spyware problem, with an extensive database of current malware threats, CounterSpy aggressively scans, detects, and removes a broad range of adware, spyware and other malware, while providing real-time protection to reduce the chance of future spyware infections. With the best spyware and malware database in the industry, CounterSpy delivers one of the highest threat detection rates in the industry and has received the Best Buy and World Class Awards from PC World, Editor's Choice Award from Laptop Magazine, and a 5-cow rating from Tucows. In December 2007, CounterSpy received CNET's Editors' Choice Award, was ranked by CNET as the #1 antispyware product in March 2008 and continues to maintain a 5-star rating on CNET's Download.com. A 15-day trial of CounterSpy is available at www.sunbeltsoftware.com .

About Sunbelt Software

Headquartered in Tampa Bay (Clearwater), Fla., Sunbelt Software was founded in 1994 and is a leading provider of Windows security and management software with product solutions in the areas of antispam and antivirus , antispyware , and vulnerability assessment. Leading products include the CounterSpy product line, Ninja Email Security , Sunbelt Exchange Archiver , and endpoint firewall technologies. The company is part of Sunbelt International Group, based in Paris, France.

For more information about Sunbelt Software, please visit the company's website at: www.sunbeltsoftware.com . To learn more about current activities, products, and ideas at Sunbelt Software, please visit Sunbelt's corporate blog at www.sunbeltblog.com .

Copyright © 2008 Sunbelt Software. All rights reserved. All trademarks used are owned by their respective companies.

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Contact: Laurie Murrell Sunbelt Software 727-562-0101 Email Contact S&S Public Relations for Sunbelt Software Kristin Miller 719-634-8292 Email Contact