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Sophos: Viruses Take a Holiday

Viruses took a holiday last month, or more accurately, malicious code writers did. Only two of August’s 10 most frequently occurring viruses were new, said Sophos, a Lynnfield, Mass., corporate security software maker that publishes a monthly list based help desk call data. “The chart is full of old stalwarts such as Klez-H, Badtrans-B, Sircam […]

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DS

Datamation Staff

Sep 3, 2002

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Viruses took a holiday last month, or more accurately, malicious code writers did.

Only two of August’s 10 most frequently occurring viruses were new, said Sophos, a Lynnfield, Mass., corporate security software maker that publishes a monthly
list based help desk call data.

“The chart is full of old stalwarts such as Klez-H, Badtrans-B, Sircam and Nimda,” said Chris Wraight, a consultant at the Lynnfield, Mass.-based Sophos. “Klez-H
and its nasty bedfellow ElKern-C, have accounted for almost a quarter of inquiries to Sophos’s support center.”

Users duped by variants of old viruses have not updated their anti-virus software, Wraight concluded. Nor have they heeded media and experts warnings about opening attachements from
unknown senders.

In addition to viruses, Internet hoaxes continue to sow confusion among users. The multi-lingual JDBGMGR hoax, which claimed to be an extremely dangerous virus
has perplexed computer users since Ma.

“Simple to implement anti-hoax policies can help limit this confusion and will prevent hoaxes from needlessly clogging up email
servers and wasting valuable bandwidth,” Wraight said.

The top 10 viruses for August, as reported by Sophos are:

1. W32/Klez-H(Klez variant)17.0% 2. W32/Yaha-E(Yaha variant)6.4% 2. JS/NoClose(NoClose Trojan)6.4% (re-entry) 4. W32/Badtrans-B(Badtrans variant) 5.3% 5. W32/ElKern-C (ElKern variant)5.1% 6. W32/Higuy-A(Higuy)2.7% (new entry) 7. W32/Datom-A(Datom)2.4% (new entry) 8. W32/Magistr-B (Magistr variant) 2.1% 9. W32/Sircam-A (Sircam) 1.9% 10.W32/Nimda-D(Nimda variant)1.6% Others: 49.1%