Nasty Zafi worm knocks Netsky and Sasser from top position
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 June 2004, shows the Hungarian Zafi worm dominating the virus
chart, accounting for almost a third of all viruses spotted by
Sophos's global network of monitoring stations.
The top ten viruses in June 2004 were as follows:
"The Zafi-B worm, which calls for changes to Hungarian
legislation, such as the introduction of the death penalty to
reduce crime, uses sophisticated social engineering tricks to dupe
innocent recipients into opening the attachment and launching the
virus," said Carole Theriault, security consultant, Sophos. "First
seen on 11 June, Zafi-B, which spreads itself by peer-to-peer
file-sharing systems and email, using a wide variety of different
languages, is proving to be a real pest.
Sophos analysed and protected against 677 new viruses in June.
The total number of viruses Sophos now protects against is 91,488.
Sophos figures have shown that over 7% of emails circulating during
the month of June have been viral.
"Perhaps due to extensive media coverage, Sasser has dropped
from the top spot as the most prevalent virus, suggesting that
computer users are wising up and ensuring that their computers are
patched against security vulnerabilities," continued Theriault.
"Indeed, an interview with the suspected author of the Sasser and
Netsky worms was published in Germany this month, further
publicising the worms."
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during June are as
follows:
"The hotmail hoax may have been knocked off the top spot this
month, but the same hoaxes recur again and again," continued
Theriault. "It's astonishing that computer users are continuing to
circulate hoaxes - the best option is just to ignore them."
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.