2.     HOAXES & VIRUSES 

Politically motivated virus makes it into the top three. 

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

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

              Position Last Mth             Virus                    Percentage of reports

  1.        1                      W32/Klez-H                        17.7%

  2.        5                      W32/Frethern-Fam              17.0%

  3.        6                      W32/Yaha-E                       16.8%

  4.        3                      W32/Badtrans-B                   5.8%

  5.        2                      W32/ElKem-C                      3.7%

  6.        7                      W32/Magistr-B                     2.5%

  7.        Re-entry          W32/Klez-E                           1.7%

  8.        Re-entry          W32/Nimda-A                       1.5%

  9.        Re-entry          W32/Magistr-A                      1.3%

  10.                                Others                                  30.1%

 “While Klez tops the virus chart again this month, more recent discoveries Frethem and Yaha are close on its heels,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus.  “Yaha came to prominence as a politically motivated virus, launching a rudimentary denial of service attack on the Pakistan government’s website and encouraging Indian hackers and virus writers to join forces and attack Pakistan.”

 “Arriving in an email with the subject ‘Re: Your password’”, Frethem relies on a simple psychological trick to entice users to open the mail.  The worm is contained in an attached EXE file.  As ever, blocking unwanted filetypes at the gateway would deal with these viruses.” 

The top ten hoaxes reported to Sophos during July 2002 are as follows:

Position                 Hoax                                         Percentage of Reports 

  1.          JDBGMGR                                                        13.2%

  2.          Hotmail hoax                                                        7.3%

  3.          A virtual card for you                                            6.3%

  4.           Bill Gates fortune                                                 5.3%

  5.          Frog in a blender/Fish in a bowl                            4.8%

  6.          Budweiser frogs screensaver                                 4.6%

  7.          Nigerian Letter                                                     3.8%

  8.          ATM Theft                                                           3.4%

  9.          JS/Exploit                                                             2.9%

  10.          Meninas da Playboy                                             1.8%

  11.         Others                                                                 46.6%

“JDBGMGR has dominated the hoax chart since its discovery in May,” continued Cluley.  “The prevalence of “A Virtual Card for you and “Budweiser frogs screensaver” several years after they originated highlights both the severity of hoaxes and how far we still have to go in educating users in safe computing practices.  Unlike viral code, hoaxes are not detected  or disabled by anti-virus software, so can continue to clog up email bandwidth longer than many true viruses.  To prevent this, computer users should refrain from forwarding virus warnings to their friends and colleagues.”

810 new viruses were discovered  and protected against by Sophos during July 2002. 

The total number of viruses Sophos now detects and protects against is 75281.

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