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Sophos Releases Top 10 Virus List
Techtree News Staff, Jul 01, 2005 1924 hrs ISTSophos has released the results of its comprehensive research of virus activity over the first six months of 2005.
Sophos has released the results of its comprehensive research of virus activity over the first six months of 2005.
Sophos has detected and protected against 7,944 new viruses a 59% increase when compared to the first six months of 2004. In line with this substantial increase in virus writing is the rapidly decreasing average time to infection.
There is now a 50% chance of being infected by an Internet worm within just 12 minutes of being online using an unprotected, unpatched Windows PC.
For the first six months of 2005 the top ten viruses, as recorded by the
SophosLabs global network of virus and spam analysis centers, were
W32/Zafi-D - 25.3%, W32/Netsky-P - 17.5%, W32/Sober-N - 10.3%, W32/Zafi-B - 4.7%, W32/Netsky-D - 3.8%, W32/Mytob-BE - 2.6%, W32/Netsky-Z - 2.3%, W32/Mytob-AS - 2.0%, W32/Netsky-B - 1.9%, W32/Sober-K - 1.7% and Others - 27.9%.
The longstanding Zafi-D worm accounts for more than a quarter of all viruses reported to Sophos to date. Dominating the top of the monthly virus charts for the first four months, this Hungarian worm uses the guise of a Christmas greeting to trick users into opening its infected attachment.
"It's really amazing that even though the holiday season has long passed, Zafi-D has managed to stick around," said Gregg Mastoras, senior security analyst with Sophos. "Over the last two months, we've seen a decrease in reports but it's still very much a threat."
Sophos has detected and protected against 7,944 new viruses a 59% increase when compared to the first six months of 2004. In line with this substantial increase in virus writing is the rapidly decreasing average time to infection.
There is now a 50% chance of being infected by an Internet worm within just 12 minutes of being online using an unprotected, unpatched Windows PC.
For the first six months of 2005 the top ten viruses, as recorded by the
SophosLabs global network of virus and spam analysis centers, were
W32/Zafi-D - 25.3%, W32/Netsky-P - 17.5%, W32/Sober-N - 10.3%, W32/Zafi-B - 4.7%, W32/Netsky-D - 3.8%, W32/Mytob-BE - 2.6%, W32/Netsky-Z - 2.3%, W32/Mytob-AS - 2.0%, W32/Netsky-B - 1.9%, W32/Sober-K - 1.7% and Others - 27.9%.
The longstanding Zafi-D worm accounts for more than a quarter of all viruses reported to Sophos to date. Dominating the top of the monthly virus charts for the first four months, this Hungarian worm uses the guise of a Christmas greeting to trick users into opening its infected attachment.
"It's really amazing that even though the holiday season has long passed, Zafi-D has managed to stick around," said Gregg Mastoras, senior security analyst with Sophos. "Over the last two months, we've seen a decrease in reports but it's still very much a threat."
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,Bangalore, on Jul 04, 2005 12:06 PM
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