Obfuscation is very important for many developers. They may protect their code for multiple reasons like copyright, anti-cheat (games), or to protect their code from being reused. If an obfuscated program does not mean automatically that it is malicious, it's often a good sign. For malware developers, obfuscation helps bypass many static security controls and slows down the reverse analysis process.
This article has been indexed from SANS Internet Storm Center, InfoCON: green