Cybercriminals are increasingly making use of malware packers as their attack of choice, according to a new study.

IT security provider BitDefender compiled its list of most popular malware attacks for April and found that the same kind of malicious software packer made up three of the places in the table.

The firm said that the findings highlight a change in the way hackers are putting together their attacks.

Sorin Dudea, head of BitDefender AV Research, commented: "It seems repacking malware to attempt avoiding detection, rather than spending time and energy writing new viruses from scratch is a technique that's here to stay."

He added that a malware loader or packer serves two purposes, in that the encryption prevents antivirus software from detecting the payload in transit and the unpacking and loading part ensures that at no point does the payload get written to disk, lessening the chances of inception.

Earlier this week, IT security giant McAfee announced that, in collaboration with digital security firm Gemalto, it is releasing new integrated software allowing PC and laptop users access to fully encrypted disks.


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