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 January 2003, the virus chart is as follows, with the most
frequently occurring virus at number one:
The Avril
worms, first seen in the wild at the beginning of January, account
for almost 30% of support queries. They have taken the top two
spots of this month's virus top ten. Other new entries to make the
top ten were the Yaha-K and Sobig worms.
"2002 ended with a few persistent offenders dominating the virus
chart," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, Sophos
Anti-Virus. "2003 kicked off with another kind of offender - virus
writer Simon Vallor, who has been sentenced to jail for two
years."
"This month also saw the arrival of the Slammer worm -
exploiting a six month old vulnerability. It reinforced the need
for everyone to ensure their patches are kept up to date,"
continued Cluley.
Sophos detected 521 new viruses, worms and Trojan horses in
January. The total number it now protects against is 79,538.
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during January 2003 are as
follows:
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.