Blended Threat

A blended threat is a sophisticated attack that bundles some of the worst aspects of viruses, worms, Trojan Horses and malicious code into one single threat. Blended threats can use server and Internet vulnerabilities to initiate, then transmit and also spread an attack. Characteristics of blended threats are that they cause harm to the infected system or network, they propagates using multiple methods, the attack can come from multiple points, and blended threats also exploit vulnerabilities. To be considered a blended thread, the attack would normally serve to transport multiple attacks in one payload. For example it wouldn't just launch a DoS attack — it would also, for example, install a Backdoor and maybe even damage a local system in one shot. Additionally, blended threats are designed to use multiple modes of transport. So, while a worm may travel and spread through e-mail, a single blended threat could use multiple routes including e-mail, IRC and file-sharing sharing networks. Lastly, rather than a specific attack on predetermined .exe files, a blended thread could do multiple malicious acts, like modify your .exe files, HTML files and registry keys at the same time — basically it can cause damage within several areas of your network at one time.