Kaspersky monthly malware statistics reveal that seven of the eight new entries on the chart detailing the 20 most threatening programmes are trojan variants.

David Emm, a member of Kaspersky’s global research and analysis team says: “Today, one of the biggest and most popular tools in the arsenal of the cybercriminal is the Trojan, increasingly favoured for its stealth-like properties. These programmes account for 91% of all known threats on the internet.”

The top 20’s highest entry is the infamous Kido worm, which infected over 276021 computers. Despite the more prominent threat of the Kido/Conficker worm, experts are advising end users not to underestimate the dangers of the trojan.

Emm comments: “Trojans are often wrongly perceived as being less dangerous than viruses or worms such as Kido as they are not parasitic and don’t spread by themselves – yet their impact can be dangerous and very far-reaching. Not only have they dramatically increased in numbers in recent years, they have also become more sophisticated.”