Security news
Security news28 February 2002
Top ten viruses reported to Sophos in February 2002
This is the latest in a series of monthly charts counting down the ten most frequently occurring viruses as compiled by Sophos, a world leader in corporate
For February 2002, the chart is as follows, with the most frequently occurring virus at number one:
| Position | Last month |
Malware | Percentage of reports | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | W32/MyParty-A |
| ||
| 2 | 1 | W32/Badtrans-B |
| ||
| 3 | 8= | W32/Klez-E |
| ||
| 4 | New | W32/Klez-G |
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| 5 | 3 | W32/Magistr-B |
| ||
| 6 | 4 | W32/Sircam-A |
| ||
| 7 | 7 | W32/Magistr-A |
| ||
| 8 | 5 | W32/Nimda-A |
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| 9 | Re-entry | W32/Hybris-B |
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| 10 | Re-entry | W32/ElKern-B |
| ||
| Others | 24.7% | ||||
"The MyParty worm duped computer users by pretending to be a link to a website containing snaps of groovy partygoers. But not everything that ends in dot com is a web address, it can also be an executable file," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos
February also saw the emergence of Coolnow - a worm that infected users of MSN Messenger. Although it did not break into the top ten, Coolnow continues to infect PCs and therefore offers a reminder that virus writers are constantly using new platforms to spread their malicious code.
739 new viruses were discovered and protected against by Sophos
The total number of viruses Sophos now detects and protects against is 72,569.
More information about MyParty.
More information about safe computing.
Graphics of the above Top Ten chart are available here.
Compiled by Sophos's technical support team, the top ten chart is collated from calls to Sophos's 24 hour, 365 days a year technical support line.
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About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
