Attack kits

Initially, the development and deployment of malware required considerable technical skill by software authors, but the development of virus-creation toolkits in the 1990s and the more general attack kits in the 2000s greatly assisted in the development and deployment of malware.

These toolkits are often known as `crimeware'. They include a variety of propagation mechanisms and payload modules that even novices can deploy. Variants that can be generated by attackers using these toolkits creates a significant problem for those defending systems against them.