Cyber−crooks in 2007

January 2007
Cyber−crooks switch to code obfuscation.
Security firm Finjan has reported that dynamic code obfuscation was increasingly used as a method to bypass traditional signature−based security systems and propagate malware during the fourth quarter of 2006. The technique works by providing each visitor to a malicious site with a different instance of obfuscated malicious code, based on random functions and parameter name changes. A conventional signature−based security solution would theoretically need millions of signatures to detect and block this particular piece of malicious code. "Hackers have begun to take advantage of new Web technologies to create complex and blended attacks," said Yuval Ben−Itzhak, chief technology officer at Finjan. "With the creation of dynamic obfuscation utilities, which enable virtually anyone to obfuscate code in an automated manner, they have dramatically escalated the threat to Web security."
Report (registration required): http://www.finjan.com/content.aspx?id=827
Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2172438/cyber−crooks−switch−cod