Anti-virus firm Sophos has published a report revealing the top ten viruses and hoaxes causing problems for businesses around the world during the month of March 2005.
The report shows that Zafi-D, which first appeared at the end of 2004, is the most commonly encountered virus for the fourth consecutive month, accounting for 45.1% of all reports. The whole chart is dominated by old viruses, with only one of the top ten, Sober-k, having first appeared in 2005.
The top ten viruses in March 2005 were as follows:
1 W32/Zafi-D 45.1%
2 W32/Netsky-P 21.0%
3 W32/Zafi-B 5.9%
4 W32/Sober-K 5.8%
5 W32/Netsky-D 4.3%
6 W32/Netsky-Z 2.7%
7 W32/Netsky-B 2.3%
8 W32/MyDoom-O 1.3%
9 W32/Netsky-C 1.1%
10 W32/Netsky-Q 1.0%
Others 9.5%
Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos said,
"March's virus chart is dominated by old timers such as Zafi-D and several versions of the Netsky worms - indeed, only one of the top ten first appeared in 2005. Poorly protected computers are the only reason these old viruses continue to wreak havoc. Some of these established threats are so widespread, they are preventing more recent viruses from breaking into the top ten. But users shouldn't be fooled into a false sense of security - with more than a thousand brand new threats detected in March alone, new viruses are being created every day. User education, up-to-date virus protection, and a cautious approach to opening unknown attachments is the best way to render viruses powerless."
Sophos research shows that 2.62%, or 1 in 38 emails, circulating during the month of March were viral. This figure is significantly lower than last month when 1 in 28 emails were viral.
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