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:
"Though protection for it has been available since December,
Sober-C managed to claim the top position again, ahead of several
higher profile worms including Mydoom-A, Netsky-B and Bagle-B,"
said Sean Richmond, Sophos's Technical Support Manager for
Australia and New Zealand. "Sober-C travels via email and KaZaA
networks and is continuing to spread widely - perhaps a sign that
those being affected, should automate anti-virus updates to
strengthen their defences against known threats."
"MyDoom-A, which used its large network of infected machines to
attack SCO's website, may well have taken the lead if not for the
built in expiry date of February 12. As it stands, it still managed
to be the second most reported virus this month," continued
Richmond. "MyDoom-B attempted a similar attack on Microsoft's
website, however this worm fizzled and was not among Sophos's top
ten."
February also saw some increased action in the fight against
computer crime, with Microsoft offering another bounty of USD
250,000 to catch the author of Mydoom-B and the arrest of a female
virus writer in Belgium known as Gigabyte.
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:
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.