31 July 2003
Top ten viruses and hoaxes reported to Sophos in July 2003
Sobig family dominates this month's chart
This is the latest in a series of monthly charts counting down the ten most frequently occurring viruses and hoaxes as compiled by Sophos, a global leader in anti-virus protection for businesses.
For July 2003, the chart is as follows, with the most frequently occurring virus at number one:
"Forget the Osbournes or the Addams Family - the Sobig family of computer worms, accounting for more than half of all virus reports, is most likely to strike fear into the hearts of IT administrators," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. "The Sobig worms, and some of the other top ten viruses, don't just spread by email. They use a variety of means. This underlines the importance of keeping anti-virus protection up to date at all entry points to the company network."
Sophos detected 625 new viruses, worms and Trojan horses in July. The total number it now protects against is 83,499.
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during July 2003 are as follows:
"An old chain letter promising that Bill Gates will share his personal fortune with anyone who forwards the email onto friends and family has stormed to the top of the chart in July," said Cluley. "Chain letters and hoaxes waste valuable email bandwidth and can scare people into panicking about non-existent virus threats."
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.
About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security
solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
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