Just on the heels of a recent report on the popularity of rootkits [1] with hackers comes news of a new threat. A new form of malware loads a rootkit onto the compromised PC, then changes the local DNS settings and finally, dumps more malicious code on to the drive. Panda Software says that this so-called "Zcodec" malware is a part of a program that claims to install codecs required for multimedia formats. The security vendor says that the intricate attack demonstrates how malware writers are getting smarter everyday and are now using rootkits, social engineering, and Trojans to commit their dirty deeds.

For further insight on the new malware approach:
- check out this article [2] at Vnunet