Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against viruses,
spyware and spam, has revealed the top ten malware threats of 2005,
in a new in-depth report into the year's most pressing security
issues.
In a year that has seen the number of new threats rise by a
staggering 48%, the lingering W32/Zafi-D worm has taken the number
one spot in the virus chart, while last year's hardest hitting
virus, W32/Netsky-P, has dropped to second place.
In contrast, W32/Sober-Z - only unleashed in November 2005 - has
already climbed to third position as it continues to disrupt and
clog networks worldwide.
The 'Sophos Security Threat Management Report 2005' - which can
be downloaded here -
was compiled by the experts at SophosLabs™, and reveals that
on average, one in every 44 emails was viral during 2005. This rose
to one in twelve during major outbreaks, while 15,907 new malware
threats were identified.
The top ten viruses of the year, reported at Sophos's global
network of monitoring stations, are as follows:
"Don't let the figures fool you - old-timers may head up the top
ten, but the enormous rise in the number of new threats shows that
2005 has been anything but quiet on the malware front," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant at Sophos. "This huge increase stems
from the escalating interest in authoring Trojans, worms and
viruses shown by criminal gangs intent on making a profit. By
focusing their efforts on a smaller number of victims,
cybercriminals can target them with bespoke malware, increasing
their chances of slipping under the security net."
Interestingly, while all of the top ten threats are
Windows-based worms, the number of Trojan horses written during
2005 outweighs worms by almost 2:1. In addition, the percentage of
malware that includes spyware components rose from 54.2% in January
to 66.4% by the end of the year. These figures reinforce the notion
that malware authors are engaging in targeted attacks, rather than
widespread bombardment, and also help explain a rise in the amount
of spam spewed out by zombie computers - now accounting for over
60% of the world's spam.
"Unlike viruses or worms, Trojans cannot replicate on their own,
meaning that they must be deliberately emailed or planted on
websites in order to spread. It's more and more common for new
Trojans to become widespread after being spammed en masse from
zombie computers," added Cluley. "It's no surprise that most of the
top ten threats allow hackers to gain access to an infected PC,
enabling them to create a zombie, steal information, and dish out
their malware from under the nose of unsuspecting users."
The Sophos report reveals that unprotected computers have a 40%
chance of being infected by an internet worm within ten minutes,
turning them into a zombie under a remote hacker's control.
The report also identifies which countries around the world have
been responsible for relaying the most spam during 2005, and that
pornographic spam and messages attempting "pump-and-dump" stock
scams have surged.
Sophos has made available free virus and
security news RSS feeds, ensuring that internet users are
always up-to-the-second with news about the latest viruses and
security threats.
More information about safe
computing.
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.