News First 64-Bit Malware for Windows Appears

Also from eWeek, two related articles. Firstly, the report on the first malicious 64 bit code to appear:

Symantec Security Response has revealed that it has analyzed the first 64-bit Windows attack code.

The attack is a proof of concept with no payload. Named W64.Rugrat.3344 by Symantec, it's very old-fashioned in technique. When executed it infects all 64-bit executable files, excluding .DLL files, in the directory from which it was executed, and all subdirectories, and then exits.

More on that here. But it seems it's an odd beast, in that it doesn't require a true 64-bit machine - it'll happily infect files on a 32-bit machine using 64-bit emulation, according to the other eWeek article here.