We've covered targeted attacks
manytimesin the past
and we've also covered
PDF
and vulnerabilities in
Adobe Acrobat/Reader
being used to install malware. So we
decided to take a look at targeted attacks
and see which file types were the most
popular during 2008 and if that has
changed at all during 2009.
In 2008 we identified about
1968 targeted attack files. The
most popular file type was DOC,
i.e. Microsoft Word representing
34.55%.
So far in 2009 we have
discovered 663 targeted attack
files and the most popular file type is
now PDF. Why has it changed?
Primarily because there has been more
vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat/Reader
than in the Microsoft Office applications.
Like the
two vulnerabilities
we mentioned a week ago. These are
scheduled to be fixed by Adobe on May
12.
More info about targeted
attacks and how they work can be found in
the Lab's
YouTube video.