1 June 2005
Top ten viruses and hoaxes reported to Sophos in May 2005
Sober-N worm storms the chart and topples Zafi-D
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against spam and viruses,
has published a report revealing the top ten viruses and hoaxes causing
problems for businesses around the world during the month of May 2005.
The report, compiled from Sophos's global network of monitoring stations,
reveals that the new Sober-N worm has toppled Zafi-D, which dominated the
top of the virus chart for the previous five months. The bilingual Sober-N
virus, which poses as tickets for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, was detected at
the beginning of the month and rapidly spread across 40 countries - accounting
for 4.5% of all email at its peak.
The top ten viruses in May 2005 were as follows:
"Sober-N stormed to the top of the chart in early May, making it one of
the biggest outbreaks so far this year," said Carole Theriault
, security consultant at Sophos. "This manipulative email worm spread quickly,
using social engineering tricks, such as offering free World Cup tickets, to
entice recipients into opening the infected attachment. The Sober-Q Trojan,
released a few weeks later, searched for computers infected with Sober-N and
attempted to secretly turn them into spamming machines. The spam subject lines
included 'Dresden Bombing Is To Be Regretted Enormously', 'Armenian Genocide
Plagues Ankara 90 Years On', 'Dresden 1945' and 'Turkish Tabloid Enrages Germany
with Nazi Comparisons'."
"This month also sees another new entry - Mytob-AZ," continued Theriault.
"This is another mass-mailing worm accompanied by a backdoor Trojan,
allowing others to access the infected user's computer. Despite only accounting for 1.6% of viruses in May, it is a concern due to the severe damage it causes to businesses."
Sophos identified and protected against 1,515 new viruses in May. The
total number of viruses Sophos now protects against is 104,784. Its research
showsthat 2.62%, or one in 38 emails, circulating during the month of May were
viral - a small increase on the previous month.
In order to minimise exposure to viruses, Sophos recommends that companies
deploy a policy at their email gateway which blocks unwanted executable
attachments from being sent into their organisation from the outside
world. Companies should also run up-to-date anti-virus software, firewalls and
install the latest security patches.
The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during May 2005 were as follows:
"There has been little movement to the hoaxes chart this month, with the
usual suspects standing their ground and proving relentless," said Theriault.
"As ever, the best advice for computer users receiving this sort of hoax email
is to ignore and delete them. Effective anti-spam defence will also reduce
the impact of hoaxes and chain letters."
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 above top ten virus 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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