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:
"The JDBGMGR
hoax is still the most problematic of the email hoaxes," continued
Cluley. "We all have a part to play in slowing down the spread of
this hoax. If you receive this email, simply delete it."
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.