Sober-C reclaims top spot
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against spam and
viruses, has revealed the top ten viruses and hoaxes causing
problems for businesses around the world.
The report, which examines virus and hoax reports in the month
of February 2004, shows MyDoom-A slip off the top spot, to allow
for Sober-C's return to the number one position.
The top ten viruses in February 2004 were as follows:
"Sober-C, which first topped the chart in December, returned to
the top slot again this month ahead of the high profile worms
MyDoom-A, Netsky-B and Bagle-B," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant at Sophos. "Sober-C travels via email and
peer-to-peer networks and is continuing to spread widely.
Protection against this worm has been available for months - those
falling victim should consider automating their anti-virus updates
in order to beef up their defences."
"My-Doom-A, which created a possessed zombie army, knocking
SCO's website off the internet, took second place and might have
hit the top of the chart this month had it not expired on 12th
February," continued Cluley. "Its variant MyDoom-B attempted a
similar onslaught on Microsoft's website, however this worm caused
few infections and didn't even make Sophos's top ten. This month
also saw the fight against computer crime stepped up, with
Microsoft offering USD 250,000 to catch the author of Mydoom-B and
the arrest of female virus writer Gigabyte in Belgium."
Sophos analysed and protected against 869 new viruses in
February. The total number of viruses Sophos now protects against
is 88,288.
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during February are as
follows:
"Businesses need to remain vigilant against hoaxes. While the
Hotmail hoax simply acts as an email chain letter, other hoaxes
pose a much more serious threat, often convincing users to delete
files from their computers," continued Cluley.
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.