06 Apr 2000
The Top 10 Viruses - March 2000
As compiled by Sophos Anti-Virus
This is the latest in a series of monthly charts counting down the ten most
frequently occurring viruses as compiled by Sophos, worldwide
leaders in anti-virus protection.
For March 2000, the chart is as follows, with the most
frequently occurring virus at number one:
"Word macro viruses continue to dominate most of the chart, but
this month has seen a resurgence in popularity for a file virus
which honours the cartoon series South Park," comments Graham
Cluley, head of corporate communications for Sophos Anti-Virus.
"W32/Pretty is a worm that spreads via internet relay chat (IRC)
and email. Users are receiving emails with an icon of Kyle from
South Park and assuming the attached program is a harmless game. In
fact, the icon masks the W32/Pretty virus."
More details on the W32/Pretty virus (and a snapshot of Kyle)
are available from W32/Pretty virus analysis
page.
Compiled by Sophos's technical support team, the top ten chart
is collated from calls to Sophos's 24 hour, 365 days a year
technical support line.
Graphics of the above Top Ten chart are available at Sophos Image gallery.
About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing complete security solutions that are simple to deploy, manage, and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile and network security solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.