30 January 2004
Top ten viruses and hoaxes reported to Sophos in January 2004
Late entry MyDoom storms to the top of the chart
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against spam and viruses, has revealed the top ten viruses and hoaxes causing problems for businesses around the world.
The report, which examines virus and hoax reports in the month of January 2004, reveals two new entrants - the MyDoom and Bagle worms - took the top two positions in the chart.
The top ten viruses in January 2004 were as follows:
"Two new entrants dominate January's chart, yet both were first detected late in the month," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "The MyDoom worm - which launched a denial of service attack on SCO's website and clogged up thousands of email inboxes - only appeared on 26 January and accounted for one in four reports."
"The Bagle worm was a shooting star. First detected halfway through the month, it shot up the chart in only a short amount of time," continued Cluley. "But - rather like the similarly named Beagle Mars rover - Bagle's popularity was short-lived. It was designed to fall dormant on 28 January."
Sophos analysed and protected against 608 new viruses in January. The total number of viruses Sophos now protects against is 87,419.
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during January are as follows:
"The Hotmail hoax refuses to shift from top place in the chart," said Cluley. "Hoaxes and chain letters clog email servers and waste valuable bandwidth - all companies are advised to implement an anti-hoax policy."
Sophos has made available a free, constantly updated information feed for intranets and websites which means users can always find out about the latest viruses and hoaxes.
Graphics of the virus top ten chart are available here.
More information about safe computing, including anti-hoax policies.
- USA number 1 for malware and spam
- Huge surge in email attachment attacks
- Scareware makes users buy bogus products
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
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