I.T. security companies have said the latest onslaught of the Mytob worm has set a record for the number of variants released into the wild. In the last three months, for example, there have been about 150 new variations of the virus.
Although the risk of infection is low, researchers speculate that the authors of the worm want to remain below the scrutiny of the mainstream press, which tends only to cover high-profile malware. One reason for this desire to fly beneath the radar could be that the authors of Mytob are being paid.
Hide in a Virus
Trend Micro, which released a yellow alert on two variants of the Mytob worm (for versions .AR and .BI), said the virus uses the exploit code found in MyDoom.
"There is a question that this could be publicly distributed source code," said David Perry, global director of education at Trend Micro.
Analysts like Perry have said the availability of the code outside of a set number of co-authors would make it an ideal smokescreen. "What better place to hide a criminal enterprise  than within a crowd of viruses," he offered.
It is in this sense that the author of many of the Mytob variants is thought to be a professional who is being paid to send out the worms. Many of the Mytob variants carry some form of spyware.
"This is not the kind of thing amateurs would do because if you continue like this you're going to get caught," Perry noted.
Evolution of Virus Writing
The evolution of virus writing has been a difficult one to chart. There are few cases of the authors of malware who reveal the processes of virus development. "Generally, the same kids who wrote virus three years ago aren't writing them now," Perry mused.
Because the latest Mytob outbreaks have happened beneath the radar, Perry believes the authors intended a low-level infection rate to escape prosecution in the media.
If the reason for the wave of Mytob variants is to release spyware and somehow generate revenue, the people behind the virus do not want notoriety.
"It's different with the 'ha ha' kind of virus where a kid just wants to say he did something to your computer," Perry said. Clearly, a piece of software that gets in silently and returns bank information and other sensitive data takes the phishing scam to a new level.
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