IT contractors have been told to be on the lookout for rogue security programs which can spread malware.

According to Sunbelt Security, the programs can appear to legitimately scan the computer for malware but are actually distributing their own threats.

The threats contained in these "scareware" programs is often the Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT virus, according to Francis Montesino, manager of Sunbelt Software's malware processing team.

He explained: "Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT is a generic risk that covers a lot of malicious applications.

"About 120,000 traces are identified under that detection by VIPRE's signature-based, heuristic or behavioural mechanisms."

This particular malware threat is currently by far the most prevalent on the internet, according to Sunbelt's latest research, accounting for 29.08 per cent of all malware infections reported.

The next most common threat, Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen accounts for a mere 4.17 per cent of incidents.

IT security company Sophos recently assured people who use smartphones with the Android operating system that rumours of a major malware threat are misguided.