News

Apology Tops Sophos Monthly List of Nettlesome Viruses

• By Scott Bekker
• 04/12/2001

Sophos released its “most frequently occurring” list for March this week. The list is significant because although new viruses get the most attention, it gives IT managers an indication of which viruses are actually doing the most damage at the moment.

“Despite some new viruses receiving a high profile in the media this month, the top of the chart is dominated by some familiar faces,” Sophos’ Graham Cluley said in a statement.

“It is astonishing that viruses that have been around for months – or even years in the case of Kakworm – are still costing companies money,” said Cluley, the senior technology consultant for Sophos Antivirus.

Apology accounted for 17 percent of virus reports to Sophos, Kakworm figured in 14 percent. Win 32 executables, such as Apology, were the most frequent culprits, with six of the top ten viruses in that class.

Two of the top 10 were Visual Basic Script worms, one was a Word 97 Macro and one was a Trojan horse.

Magistr and the Naked Wife Win 32 executables were the two new listees in March.

For a little perspective on why those antivirus updates take awhile to download, Sophos reported a total of 867 new viruses that it wrote protection code for during March 2001. –

Rank Percentage Name
1       17.2           W32/Apology-B
2       14.4           VBS/Kakworm
3       10.3           W32/Hybris-B
4       3.8            VBS/Lovelet-AS (Love Bug)
4       3.8            W32/Magistr-A
6       3.4            Troj/Jethome
6       3.4            W32/Naked (Naked Wife)
8       3.1            W32/Navidad-B
8       3.1            WM97/Marker-C
10     2.4           W32/Bymer-A