How well did Sophos respond to the Top 5 viruses in 2005?
SophosLabs™, our global network of integrated virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, responded quicker to the Top 5 virus outbreaks in 2005 than any of our major competitors. This is a great testament to our rapid response to virus outbreaks from our global network of integrated virus, spyware and spam analysis centres and the innovative proactive detection capabilities of our Genotype™ virus detection technology - designed to stop unknown viruses before specific protection is issued.
The tables below show the response time to a specific virus outbreak from Sophos and our major competing vendors. The time and date column indicates when a virus signature for a certain outbreak became available.
The Sophos Security Threat Management Report 2005 was compiled by the experts at SophosLabs, and reveals that on average; one in every 44 emails was viral during 2005. This rose to 1 in 12 during major outbreaks, while 15,907 new malware threats were identified.
1. W32/Zafi-D
Zafi-D was December 2004’s biggest virus outbreak, and was the biggest outbreak in 2005 overall. 16.7% of the virus incidents reported to Sophos were of this outbreak.
| Vendor | Time, Date (GMT) | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Sophos | 12.10, 14/Dec/2004 | +/-0 |
| McAfee | 15.29, 14/Dec/2004 | +3h19m |
| Trend Micro | 16.58, 14/Dec/2004 | +4h48m |
| Symantec | 20.14, 14/Dec/2004 | +8h04m |
Source: PC Magazine
2. W32/Netsky-P
Netsky-P was the biggest virus outbreak in 2004, and continued to be a major threat to computer networks in 2005.
| Vendor | Time, Date (GMT) | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Sophos | 02.30, 22/Mar/2004 | +/-0 |
| McAfee | 15.21, 22/Mar/2004 | +12h51m |
| Trend Micro | 15.43, 22/Mar/2004 | +13h13m |
| Symantec | 19.05, 22/Mar/2004 | +16h35m |
Source: Sophos internal test lab
3. W32/Sober-Z
Sophos Genotype technology proactively protected our customers from this Sober-Z outbreak. Sophos was the only major vendor who proactively defended against this virus. The response time for Sophos here in the table is the time Sophos released the Genotype identity.
| Vendor | Time, Date (GMT) | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Sophos | 19.00, 26/Oct/2005 | +/-0 |
| McAfee | 16.28, 16/Nov/2005 | +20d21h28m |
| Symantec | 19.56, 19/Nov/2005 | +24d00h56m |
| Trend Micro | 23.46, 21/Nov/2005 | +26d04h46m |
Source: PC Magazine
4. W32/Sober-N
W32/Sober-N started spreading at the beginning of May 2005, posing as tickets for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
| Vendor | Time, Date (GMT) | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Sophos | 17:27, 02/May/2005 | +/-0 |
| Trend Micro | 21:18, 02/May/2005 | +3h51m |
| McAfee | 21:38, 02/May/2005 | +4h11m |
| Symantec | 00:38, 03/May/2005 | +7h11m |
Source: PC Magazine
5. W32/Zafi-B
We saw Zafi-B for the first time in June 2004, and it hasn’t disappeared since. 4.0% of virus incidents were caused by this virus in 2005.
| Vendor | Time, Date (GMT) | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Sophos | 18.30, 11/Jun/2004 | +/-0 |
| Symantec | 20.56, 13/Jun/2004 | +2d2h26m |
| Trend Micro | 08.29, 14/Jun/2004 | +2d13h59m |
| McAfee | 12.43, 14/Jun/2004 | +2d17h13m |
Source: Sophos internal test lab
