By Pia Heikkila, 1 February 2001 12:50
NEWS The first Navidad virus accounted for 14.6 per cent of all infections reported to anti-virus vendor Sophos at the end of last year - more than any other virus - and was still on top of the list come early January.
Sophos said it has received several reports of its variant in the wild, but said the virus is not a serious threat as long as users have updated their anti-virus software.
W32/Navidad-B is a variant of the original W32/Navidad email virus, which was also spotted in the wild in January. It arrives in an email message containing an attachment called EMMANUEL.EXE. Once the attached program is launched, it attempts to read new email messages and propagate itself through the user's address book.
The month's most reported virus was entitled JOKE_GESCHENK, according to anti-virus vendor Trend Micro - it spreads through an email attachment and once opened also replicates and spreads via the infected machine's address book.
Still causing problems is the Apology virus, which appears as an email attachment with one of many names from a long list including "Playboy screen saver" and "Is Linux better than Unix?". Once executed, the virus, also known as MTX, stops victims from sending an email alert to anti-virus companies.
Other viruses still causing concern are Prolin, Kakworm and newcomer to the scene Ramen, which has exposed vulnerabilities in the technology of the Linux community.
For more information on these viruses see:
Worm has turned on Linux community
http://www.silicon.com/a42268
'Kakworm' on course for Christmas number one
http://www.silicon.com/a41353
Virus Alert: Prolin worm on the prowl
http://www.silicon.com/a41312
As for what lies ahead in February, can we expect a resurgence of the Love Bug in time for some St Valentine's day chaos? Watch this space...
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