1 December 2003
Top ten viruses and hoaxes reported to Sophos in November 2003
Mimail takes five chart places, but Sober-A hits hardest
Lynnfield, MA - 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 November 2003, shows that a new email-aware worm stormed to the top of the charts, while an existing hoax had a new burst of life.
The top ten viruses in November 2003 were as follows:
"Although Mimail made five appearances in this month's chart - totaling over a quarter of all reports - it is the bilingual Sober worm that has caused the most problems for computer users this month," said Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst at Lynnfield, MA -based, Sophos, Inc. "Sober-A cunningly disguises itself using a multitude of subject titles and messages, making it difficult to spot. It can even present itself in German if it thinks it is being examined on a German user's computer."
"The Mimail worms attempted a number of different tricks, including attempting to steal the credit card information from Paypal users," continued Belthoff. " Virus writers and hackers are becoming more determined to steal confidential information, which could leave a deep hole in a victim's pocket."
Sophos analyzed and protected against 724 new viruses in November. The total number it now protects against is 86,081.
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during November are as follows:
"A new version of the Hotmail hoax, promising users extra storage space if they forwarded an email to their friends, helped keep the hoax at the top of the list of hottest hoaxes," said Belthoff.
"Creeping into the chart is the 'Do not push 90#' chain letter, which is based on an actual telephone scam from the early 1990s, and has caused people to be unnecessarily alarmed. If you receive a virus hoax, chain letter or email scam, you should delete it immediately and resist any temptation to forward it on," continued Belthoff. "Forwarding chain letters via email not only annoy most recipients, they clog bandwidth."
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.
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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