By Joey Gardiner, 19 July 2001 19:00
NEWS The Magistr virus has been the most reported virus of the last 6 months despite the fact that fixes and protection for the virus have been available for months
The news comes in anti-virus vendor Sophos' latest round-up of the year's top-ten viruses so far.
The highly damaging Magistr virus - which can completely shut your PC down - represented 13 per cent of all calls to the Sophos virus helpdesk.
Trailing in second place behind Magistr is the well-publicised Homepage virus.
Other notable entrants in the top ten are the infamous Kournikova virus, which spread by promising computer users a picture of the much-admired tennis star, and Kakworm which was first seen in 1999.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said his data showed virus attacks were increasing, but with little sign that users were getting better at dealing with them.
He said Sophos now sees about 1,200 new viruses every month, compared to about 500 a month two years ago.
Cluely added: "There is still a lot of complacency about the issues of viruses, often from those who should know better. With Kakworm there has been a Microsoft patch to protect you available since 1999, and anti-virus protection from the same time, but still people are getting it."
The list in full:
1. W32/Magistr-A 12.7% (Magistr)
2. VBS/VBSWG-X 11.9% (Homepage)
3. W32/Apology-B 10.1% (Apology)
4. W32/Hybris B 9.3% (Hybris variant)
5. VBS/SST-A 7.0% (Anna Kournikova)
6. VBS/Kakworm 6.7% (Kakworm)
7. W32/Navidad-B 6.1% (Navidad variant)
8. W32/Badtrans 3.8% (Badtrans)
9. W32/Flcss 2.2% (Funlove)
10. VBS/Lovelet-AS 1.8% (Lovebug)
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