Anti computer virus firm has published a report revealing the top ten viruses and hoaxes causing problems for businesses around the world during the month of January 2005.
The report, compiled from Sophos’s monitoring stations, shows that Zafi-D, which appeared at the end of 2004, maintains its position at the top of the chart for a second month.
What they say
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "Zafi-D tops the chart for the second consecutive month, accounting for nearly half of all reports in January. It’s disturbing that this worm, which spreads under the guise of a Christmas greeting, is continuing to cause so much trouble into the new year. Recipients are probably opening these mails thinking they have received belated Christmas cheer from a friend or colleague, but if businesses want this threat and others to stop plaguing them, they should protect their gateway with automatically updated virus protection. The second most commonly encountered virus in January – Netsky-P – is still causing considerable nuisance. Protection against this worm has been available since March 2004, but unfortunately it seems there will always be computers connected to the internet which are poorly defended enabling the worm to continue to spread, attempting to infect every other Windows PC it happens upon," continued Cluley.
Sophos claims it analysed and protected against 1,329 new viruses in January. The total number of viruses Sophos now protects against is 99,829, according to the firm. Sophos research shows that over 4.3pc, or one in 23 emails, circulating during the month of January were viral. This figure is a little lower than last month, the firm says, when one in 18 emails were viral.
Meanwhile, regarding hoax emails: "Two new entries to the hoax chart this month come in the form of emails which relate to the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster," continued Cluley. "The ‘unidentified tsunami boy’ chain letter was a genuine cry for help as well-intentioned internet users forwarded the picture of a boy caught up in the disaster. The ‘letter from tsunami victim’ is a malicious scam similar to the well-known Nigerian Letter scams designed to extort money from email users. The best advice is to simply delete all unsolicited mail."
Sophos has made available a free information feed for intranets and websites which means users can find out about viruses and hoaxes: www.sophos.com/virusinfo/infofeed/
For more information about safe computing, including anti-hoax policies, you can visit:
