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 September 2000, the chart is as follows, with the most
frequently occurring virus at number one:
"Kakworm continues to dominate the virus statistics," said Peter
Cooper, UK Support Manager at Sophos Anti-Virus. "It has been in
the top two every month since it was discovered in March despite
the fact that a patch has been available from Microsoft for over a
year and up-to-date anti-virus software detects it. This further
highlights the need for companies to take on board basic security
measures."
September saw the arrest of CIH virus
author, Chen Ing-Hau in Taiwan. The virus, which triggers on
the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, caused over $250
million damage in South Korea alone last year, infecting a quarter
of a million computers according to government reports. The news
was welcomed as sending a strong message to virus writers that they
will be caught and punished.
VBS/Kakworm exploits security vulnerabilities in Microsoft
Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook which means it is possible
to be infected just by reading an email, rather than by launching
an attached file.
More details on VBS/Kakworm and how to protect against it are
described here.
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 here.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.