A dirty dozen of viruses

According to Central Command, the Sasser worm is close to 50 per cent most prevalent virus in computing. Central Command, which provides PC anti-virus software and computer security services, has released its monthly listing of the top twelve viruses reported for May, 2004. The report, coined the “”Dirty

Dozen””, is based on the number of virus occurrences confirmed through Central Command’s Emergency Virus Response Team.

The table below represents the most prevalent viruses for

May 2004, number one being the most frequent.

Ranking Virus Name Percentage

1. Worm/Sasser 49.1%

2. Worm/Netsky.P 16.1%

3. Worm/Netsky.Z 5.4%

4. Worm/Netsky.D.Dam 5.1%

5. Worm/Netsky.Q 3.7%

6. Worm/Netsky.C 2.8%

7. Worm/Netsky.B 2.0%

8. Worm/Bagle.AA 1.5%

9. Worm/Netsky.A 1.1%

10. Worm/Bagle.Z 0.7%

11. Worm/MyDoom.F 0.4%

12. Worm/Sober.G 0.3%

Others 11.8 per cent

“”The pesky Netsky worm family once again occupied a vast majority of the positions in May. However, the largest virus epidemic for the month was Worm/Sasser,”” said Steven Sundermeier, vice president of products and services at Central Command.

“”Discovered on April 30th, Sasser quickly raged havoc across the Internet and crippled thousands of Windows systems worldwide. Many spooked Windows 2000 and XP users found their computers continually rebooting for no apparent reason, a common sign of a Sasser infection.””

Sasser spread by exploiting a known Windows LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service) vulnerability.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Featured Story

How the CTO can Maintain Cloud Momentum Across the Enterprise

Embracing cloud is easy for some individuals. But embedding widespread cloud adoption at the enterprise level is...

Related Tech News

Get ITBusiness Delivered

Our experienced team of journalists brings you engaging content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives delivered directly to your inbox.

Featured Tech Jobs