Kids these days can't even write a decent virus

The crusty headless Conficker worm is the web's most prolific web threat, says security Check Point.

The net menace was the one-time world's biggest bot worming its way since 2008 through millions of machines across every country in the world, smashing through social networks including Facebook, Skype, and popular email services.

It exploits a Windows vulnerability (CVE-2008-4250) shuttered in a Microsoft critical update that year.

Check Point says it registered the worm as the chief threat last month noting it was behind 17 percent of malware attacks.

The authors of the household name malware have evaded capture despite a US$250,000 bounty offered by Microsoft.

Their creation has remained in headlines since 2008 having infected a swath of cheap hard drives and USBs, and even police body-worn cameras in the United States.

Check Point noted Conficker's dominance last December, and CERT UK recently said it found more than half a million infections in April .

The Sality malware family, first noticed in 2010, is Check Point's second most common threat responsible for 12 percent of monitored attacks.

ZeroAccess, a dusty but more modern threat, takes bronze for propagating six percent of malware attacks. Its rootkit was thought to reside on more than a million machines and is still operating thanks to an incomplete command and control take down effort in 2013.

That malware bumped Cutwail off the list which was the previous third most prolific threat.

The Android HummingBad and Lop malware, and iOS XcodeGhost were the firm's top three mobile malware threats.

The news follows a Microsoft report which last week revealed the Stuxnet vulnerability (CVE-2010-2568) was the most commonly exploit web hole on the internet.

It affects only Windows versions older than Windows 8 that have not applied the August 2010 patch. ®