Netsky-P and Zafi-B Worms Slug it Out for Top Threat

The Netsky-P and Zafi-B worms are running neck and neck for the top spot

in June’s list of Worst Malware Threats.

While Sophos, Inc., a Lynnfield, Ma.-based anti-virus and anti-spam

company, ranks Zafi-B as the most prolific threat last month, Central

Command, Inc., a Medina, Ohio-based anti-virus company, puts Netsky-P at

the top of their June list.

According to Sophos, Zafi-B accounted for 30.4 percent of all malware

traveling the Internet last month, and Netsky-P came in with 9.9

percent. But Central Command, showed pretty much opposite results with

Netsky-P accounting for 32.7 percent of malware and Zafi-B making up 8.8

percent.

”Statistics are collected differently, but these are two bad worms that

we’ve been dealing with,” says Carol Theriault, a security consultant

with Sophos. ”The Netsky family, in particular, has caused a lot of

trouble for us this year. There are more than 30 variants. The guy

claiming ownership of them has been arrested in Germany so hopefully we

won’t see any more of these. But they’ve been around since January and

we’re still seeing them in our top 10.”

Theriault says Zafi-B has caused a large number of infections in Eastern

Europe. The text message in the Zafi-B email is written in Hungarian and

is rather old-school in that it carries a political message (new worms

are more focused on financial gain than in railing against Microsoft or

the government).

And many users in the United States were infected with Zafi-B because

their anti-virus software couldn’t read the Hungarian text so the virus

slipped through the protective layer.

What Central Command and Sophos do agree on is that June was a quieter

month than the several months that preceded it.

”Unlike earlier this year, June was relatively tranquil,” says Steve

Sundermeier, a vice president at Central Command.

Theriault says Sophos had added 900 new virus identities to its

anti-virus software in May, but that number dropped to 670 this past

month. ”Normally, we see between 600 and 800 a month,” she adds.

”June was more average again.”