Sophos has revealed the top ten viruses causing problems for businesses around the world during the month of October 2005.
The report, compiled from Sophos's global network of monitoring stations, reveals that October has seen the biggest increase in virus numbers since its records began - it now identifies and protects against a total of 112,142 viruses, which is an increase of 1,685 on last month. Netsky-P, the worm written by convicted German teenager Sven Jaschan, continues to head up the top ten twenty months after it was first detected. However, Mytob-GH, which first appeared on 16 October 2005, is already in second place and showing no sign of abating. This Mytob variant is well placed to topple Netsky-P from the top of the chart in November.
The top ten viruses in October were as follows:
1 W32/Netsky-P 17.2%
2 W32/Mytob-GH 8.1%
3 W32/Mytob-EX 5.7%
4 W32/Mytob-AS 5.4%
5 W32/Mytob-BE 5.3%
6 W32/Zafi-D 3.0%
7 W32/Netsky-D 2.5%
8 W32/Mytob-C 2.4%
9 W32/Zafi-B 2.3%
10 W32/Mytob-ER 2.3%
Others 45.8%
September's lull in new viruses was short lived, with October's count totalling a record high of 1,685. Sophos experts have revealed that nearly two thirds of the viruses reported to Sophos during the month were versions of the Mytob worm, with the new Mytob-GH and Mytob-EX variants having made a significant impact.
Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos said,
"The unfortunate onslaught of new threats this month is unsurprising as malware authors ramp up their game in their pursuit of hard cash. The Mytob dynasty continues to grow - attacking networks thick and fast. Users should ensure that their anti-virus protection is regularly updated since this barrage of threats shows no sign of slowing down."
While Netsky-P no longer poses quite such a potent threat to proactive users, it is still at the top of the October chart for the third consecutive month, dropping slightly from 18.6% to 17.13% of viruses reported to Sophos.
With this rise in viruses, Sophos's research shows that 1.66%, or 1 in 60 emails, circulating in October were viral.
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