Sasser and Netsky top virus charts

Last month saw the outbreak of the Sasser worm, but Netsky and its variants still caused huge numbers of infections in May, according to research.

Antivirus company Sophos said that Sasser accounted for 51 per cent of infections last month, with Netsky variants filling four places in the top five.

But Trend Micro barely registered the Sasser worm, with the E variant squeezing into eighth in its top 10, while Netsky dominated.

"Sasser had a massive impact as it hit home and industry users alike," said Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos.

"It was huge this month; basically if you hadn't patched up you were going to get it. Older worms are still hanging around, but Sasser had us rushed this month."

Overall all antivirus researchers noted the increasing use of variants as hackers adapt others' code.

But there was disagreement over the rate of new viruses, with Sophos reporting May as the busiest month for new viruses since 2001 and Trend Micro suggesting that rates were dropping.

But it is not just worms that make the lists this month. Panda Software has reported that Trojans such as Briss.A and Downloader.L are spreading fast via email and peer-to-peer file sharing.

Once installed, these activate immediately to download more malicious code and could allow the infected PC to be used for spamming or denial of service attacks.

All three vendors warned that antivirus software alone is not an effective defence against modern viruses that use a variety of propagation mechanisms. The vendors recommend beefing up defences with a firewall and other protection systems.

See also:

Microsoft's enterprise security under fire

Symantec puts the boot in  16 Feb 2005

Teenager charged over Sasser worm

Sven Jaschan faces five years in jail if convicted  10 Sep 2004

Worms to cost European ISPs £188m

Broadband providers face expensive battle against attacks over coming year  28 May 2004

First 64-bit virus found

'Rugrat', a low-risk direct-action infector with no payload, reported in the wild  28 May 2004

Could prison cure viruses?

Will the sentences imposed by courts really serve as a deterrent against virus writers?  27 May 2004

Bugwatch: Lessons from Sasser

Teenagers must be taught responsible computing  26 May 2004

Security

The latest wave of cyber-crimes and acts of vandalism have demonstrated once again that many systems are still vulnerable to attack.  15 Apr 2004

Bug busters: keeping your PC virus free

With more computer viruses reported every day, it may seem like we're fighting a losing battle but there are plenty of simple ways to keep your PC safe from harm. Let us show you how.  29 Oct 2003

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!