Kaspersky warns of a virtually indestructable malware

Kaspersky is warning that the latest version of the TDL-4 Trojan is the most complex and sophisticated malware it has yet seen and is virtually indestructible.

The security company said the the combination of a powerful rootkit and other capabilities, such as being able to delete other malware and hide from security software, means that more than four million computers have been infected to create a vast botnet.

TDL-4 is distributed mainly with the use of so-called partner programs and affiliates. The authors of the malware are not expanding the network of infected computers themselves; instead they pay third parties to do it according to Kaspersky.

Kaspersky Lab experts, Sergey Golovanov and Igor Sumenkov, who have analysed the malware, said: "We don't doubt that the development of TDSS will continue. Malware and botnets connecting infected computers will cause much unpleasantness – both for end-users and IT-security specialists.

"Active reworkings of TDL-4 code, rootkits for 64-bit systems, the launch of a new operating system, use of exploits from the Stuxnet arsenal, use of p2p technologies, proprietary ‘anti-virus' and much more make the TDSS malicious program one of the most technologically developed and most difficult to analyse."