Top Ten Viruses Reported To Sophos In February 2002

This is the latest in a series of monthly charts counting down the ten most frequently occurring viruses as compiled by Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection.

For February 2002, the chart is as follows, with the most frequently occurring virus at number one:

1. W32/MyParty-A (My Party) 18.9%

2. W32/Badtrans-B (Badtrans variant) 15.7%

3. W32/Klez-E (Klez variant) 13.5%

4. W32/Klez-G (Klez variant) 10.0%

5. W32/Magistr-B (Magistr variant) 4.8%

6. W32/Sircam-A (Sircam) 4.5%

7. W32/Magistr-A (Magistr) 3.2%

8. W32/Nimda-A (Nimda) 1.8%

9. W32/Hybris-B (Hybris) 1.5%

10. W32/ElKern-B (ElKern variant) 1.4%

Others: 24.7%

“The MyParty worm duped computer users by pretending to be a link to a website containing snaps of groovy partygoers. But not everything that ends in dot com is a web address, it can also be an executable file,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. “It was a simple psychological trick and many people fell for it. The message is simple: stop double-clicking on unsolicited email attachments, even if they appear to come from someone you know.”

February also saw the emergence of Coolnow – a worm that infected users of MSN Messenger. Although it did not break into the top ten, Coolnow continues to infect PCs and therefore offers a reminder that virus writers are constantly using new platforms to spread their malicious code.

739 new viruses were discovered and protected against by Sophos Anti-Virus during February 2002. The total number of viruses Sophos now detects and protects against is 72,569.

For more information about MyParty, please visit:

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32mypartya.html

Graphics of the above Top Ten chart are available at:

http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/imgallery/topten

For more information about safe computing visit:

http://www.sophos.com/safecomputing

Compiled by Sophos’s technical support team, the top ten chart is collated from submissions to Sophos’s 24 hour, 365 days a year technical support service.

ABOUT SOPHOS:

Sophos is one of the world’s largest specialist developers of anti-virus software. The products are sold and supported through a global network of subsidiaries and partners in more than 150 countries. Sophos Anti-Virus is widely used by large corporations, banks and governments