Lynnfield, MA - Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus
solutions, today announced the latest in a series of monthly charts
counting down the ten most frequently occurring viruses and
hoaxes.
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, accounted for almost 30% of support inquiries. 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 Chris Wraight, technology consultant at Sophos, Inc.
"The new year was kicked off with another kind of offender - virus
writer, Simon Vallor, who was recently sentenced to two years in
prison."
"This month also saw the arrival of the Slammer worm -
exploiting a six month old vulnerability. It reinforced the need
for everyone to ensure that their patches are kept up-to-date,"
continued Wraight.
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.