An unusual piece of malware – a dialler that automatically dials premium rate international numbers via a PC’s analogue modem – has topped Fortinet’s latest ranking of the most frequently seen IT security threats.

According to Fortinet, “Malware such as this, which involves a bot embedding a dialler, is particularly rare and in this domain, the volume of [the bot, dubbed] W32/Dialer.PZ!tr is unprecedented.”

Fortinet says that the bot was primarily reported throughout Mexico and the United States, with Europe and Africa being the destination locations for the calls. It suggested that Mexico was targeted because it has high use of dial-up modems, and the United States because of its high population.

Source: It Wire

~LC

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