Largest number of new viruses recorded since December 2001 -
Zafi worm still spreading at staggering rate
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against spam and
viruses, has published a report revealing the top ten viruses and
hoaxes causing problems for businesses around the world.
The report shows that the Hungarian Zafi worm continues to
dominate the virus chart, accounting for more than half of all
viruses spotted by Sophos's global network of monitoring stations.
The number of new viruses being written is on the increase too,
with Sophos identifying a total of 1,157 brand new viruses during
the month - the highest figure since December 2001.
The top ten viruses in July 2004 were as follows:
"The Zafi worm, which can arrive in several different languages,
won't be disappearing anytime soon. There are so many copies of
Zafi-B flying around and trying to break through companies'
defences," said Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos.
"It is vital that computer users around the world are protected
fully to ensure worms like these don't hang around like a bad
smell."
"MyDoom-O, first seen on 26 July, has also been spreading
successfully, needing only a few days to burst into the Sophos
chart of top ten viruses. It used an unprecedented technique of
infecting computers, scooping up email addresses and polling search
engines for more addresses to bombard. MyDoom-O hit Google
particularly hard, and millions of users were unable to access the
search engine," continued Theriault.
Sophos analysed and protected against 1,157 new viruses in July.
The total number of viruses Sophos now protects against is 92,645.
Sophos figures show that over 9% of emails circulating during the
month of July were viral.
"This is the first time since December 2001 that Sophos has
issued protection for so many threats. Unfortunately, it looks like
the number of new viruses we see each month is growing rather than
shrinking. When compared to the same period last year, we have
issued protection for 532 more viruses this month," said
Theriault.
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during July are as
follows:
"The Hotmail hoax returns to the top spot this month as we
continue to see the same hoaxes causing problems month after
month," continued Theriault. "Administrators are advised to set up
a company policy telling all users not to forward hoaxes to friends
or colleagues."
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.