Report: Conficker still biggest threat for businesses

The Conficker worm is the largest threat to enterprises, and the worm continues to spread mostly due to weak or stolen passwords and vulnerabilities which require security patches, a report reveals.

According to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report volume 12 (SIRv12), which analyses online threat data and was released on Wednesday, the Conficker worm was detected 220 million times worldwide in the past two and a half years, making it the biggest threat to enterprises. In the fourth quarter alone, the worm had been detected on 1.7 million systems worldwide.

The report analysed online threats from July to December last year, from 600 million systems from more than 100 countries worldwide.

The worm steals administrative passwords, and uses it to log onto every other machine in the network, thereafter compromising those machines. It was first detected in November 2008.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Conficker remains biggest threat to enterprises on ZDNet Asia.