Sasser worm dominates virus reports; number of new viruses hits
two and a half year high
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 May 2004, shows the Sasser worm dominating the chart, accounting
for more than half the reports received by Sophos.
The top ten viruses in May 2004 were as follows:
"Sasser was the major pain in the neck this month, affecting far
more users than even the prevalent Netsky worms. Requiring no user
intervention and taking advantage of a relatively new Microsoft
hole, it sneaked onto unprotected PCs, swamping internet
connections," said Carole Theriault, security consultant, Sophos.
"The best way to block such stealth worms is to deploy a
consolidated defence, including multi-level anti-virus protection,
firewalls and policies to update operating systems and educate
staff."
Sophos analysed and protected against 959 new viruses in May,
this is the highest number of new viruses discovered in a single
month since December 2001. The total number of viruses Sophos now
protects against is 90,811.
"The Sasser and Netsky worms may have captured the headlines,
but many more viruses have been written this month - 959 in total,"
continued Theriault. "Indeed, May has seen a noticeable spike in
cybercriminal activity, suggesting that even the arrest of Sven
Jaschan, the German teenager who has owned up to writing Sasser and
Netsky has done nothing to curb the problem."
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during May are as
follows:
"A new entry to the hoax chart in May is the 'Spunkball' chain
letter," continued Theriault. "This message claims to warn of
teenagers targeting stationary cars with fire bombs. As ever, the
best advice for computer users receiving this sort of hoax email is
to simply press delete. Deploying an effective anti-spam defence
can also reduce the impact of hoaxes and chain letters."
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.