This is the latest in a series of monthly charts counting down
the ten most frequently occurring viruses and hoaxes as compiled by
Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection.
For October 2002, the chart is as follows, with the most
frequently occurring virus at number one:
"After seven months at the top, Klez-H has finally been
knocked off its perch by the Bugbear worm," said
Natasha Staley, anti-virus consultant, Sophos Anti-Virus. "Bugbear
is a box of tricks that not only spreads via email and network
shares but can also log the victim's keystrokes - allowing hackers
to monitor everything a user types from passwords to bank account
details."
Protection against Bugbear was made available by anti-virus
vendors as soon as the worm was discovered. Sophos urges users to
keep their anti-virus software up-to-date and to regularly download
patches to make their operating systems as robust as possible.
Bugbear itself exploits vulnerabilities in Microsoft Outlook,
Outlook Express and Internet Explorer in order to spread.
Sophos detected 824 new viruses, worms and Trojan horses in
October, the total number it now protects against is 77,564.
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during October 2002 are as
follows:
To lessen the impact of these bogus viruses warnings, Sophos
advises all businesses to implement an anti-hoax policy.
This should specify that all virus warnings, whatever their source,
are centrally coordinated by one member of staff who is responsible
for confirming whether they are real or fake.
Sophos has made available a free, constantly updated information feed for intranets and
websites which means users can always find out about the latest
viruses and hoaxes.
Graphics of the virus top ten chart are available here.
More information about safe computing,
including anti-hoax policies.
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.