This is the latest in a series of monthly charts counting down
the ten most frequently occurring viruses as compiled by Sophos, a
world leader in corporate anti-virus protection. Starting this
month, Sophos is also issuing a top ten of virus hoaxes.
For April 2002, the chart is as follows, with the most
frequently occurring virus at number one:
"The various manifestations of the Klez worm dominate April's virus
chart with variants taking up the number one, two and six slots,"
said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos
Anti-Virus. "
Klez-H
was the hard hitter; some commentators went so far as to call this
the biggest worm in the world ever. In reality, the success of
Klez-H is damning evidence that computer users are failing to keep
their anti-virus software up-to-date. Sophos issued protection for
variant
Klez-G -
which also protects against Klez-H - back in early February."
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during April 2002 are as
follows:
"Virus hoaxes - emails warning of highly destructive but
mythical viruses - spread and cause havoc because users are duped
into thinking the warnings are real. In some instances, hoaxes can
be as disruptive and costly as genuine viruses," said Cluley.
"'A virtual card for
you' was first reported in December 2000, but it is still
catching users out. Introducing an anti-hoax policy will limit the
harm done."
474 new viruses were discovered and protected against by Sophos
Anti-Virus during April 2002.
The total number of viruses Sophos now detects and protects
against is 73,553.
More information
about Klez.
Graphics of the above Top Ten chart are available here.
More information
about safe computing, including anti-hoax policies.
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.
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 security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.