Sophos has revealed the top ten viruses and hoaxes causing problems for businesses around the world during the month of January 2006.
The report, compiled from Sophos's global network of monitoring stations, reveals that a staggering 2,312 new pieces of malware have been recorded this month - an increase of more than a third on December's figures. Following its rampant domination of the chart in December 2005, Sober-Z, while still the worst offender this month, stopped spreading after 6 January, signaling the end of its monopoly. The fall of Sober-Z early in the month has led to a shake-up in the rest of the chart, including the entry of the new Kama Sutra worm (Nyxem-D) and the re-entry of two previously prolific worms.
The top ten viruses in January were as follows:
1 W32/Sober-Z 44.9%
2 W32/Netsky-P 8.7%
3 W32/Zafi-B 4.3%
4 W32/Nyxem-D 3.6%
5 W32/Mytob-BE 3.1%
6 W32/Mytob-FO 2.7%
7 W32/Netsky-D 1.7%
8 W32/Mytob-EX 1.6%
9 W32/Mytob-C 1.5%
10 W32/Mytob-AS 1.3%
Others 26.6%
The Sober-Z worm, which sent itself as an email attachment and attempted to turn off security software on the user's computer, is no longer a concern to users, but the fact that it stopped spreading in the first week of January and still accounts for almost 45% of malware reported to Sophos this month demonstrates the potency of the attack.
Nyxem-D, the Kama Sutra worm, which was first seen on 18 January, propelled itself into the charts this month at number four. The email worm uses a variety of pornographic disguises in an attempt to spread and disable security software. Nyxem-D is also programmed to overwrite files on Friday 3 February.
Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos said,
"In many ways the Kama Sutra worm is a throwback to the days when sexy subject lines and attachment names were often used to tempt users to open the infected file. The bad news for those who have been infected by the worm is that they run the risk of having their data wiped by its destructive payload on 3 February. This obvious sign of infection is a far cry from the stealth tactics employed by modern cyber criminals, bent on financial gain."
Elsewhere in the chart, Netsky-P is hanging on to its top five place, creeping back up to number two this month.
"Some of these worms have been around for years, and should act as a wake up call for businesses and users who don't have adequate protection - these worms are simple to control as long as a consolidated solution is in place, and their spread would have been halted if anti-virus updates were applied," continued Theriault.
Sophos's research shows that 1.4% or one in 70 emails is viral.
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