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By Graham Hayday, 1 November 2002 11:45

NEWS A variant of the Bugbear worm was the most widespread bit of malware in October, according to statistics released yesterday by Sophos Anti-Virus. Bugbear-A displaced Klez-H at the top of the virus list last month, although the latter is still causing serious problems. Natasha Staley, anti-virus consultant, Sophos Anti-Virus, said: "After seven months at the top, Klez-H has finally been knocked off its perch by the Bugbear worm. Bugbear is a box of tricks that not only spreads via email and network shares but can also log the victim's keystrokes - allowing hackers to monitor everything a user types from passwords to bank account details." Bugbear exploits vulnerabilities in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and Internet Explorer in order to spread. Sophos detected 824 new viruses, worms and Trojan horses in October. The top ten in full is as follow: 1. W32/Bugbear-A (Bugbear worm)
77.6 per cent (NEW ENTRY) 2. W32/Klez-H (Klez variant)
6.2 per cent 3. W32/Opaserv-A (Opaserv worm)
2.5 per cent (NEW ENTRY) 4. W32/Yaha-E (Yaha variant)
1.1 per cent 5. W32/Badtrans-B (Badtrans variant)
0.8 per cent 6= W32/Nimda-D (Nimda variant)
0.7 per cent 6= W32/Opaserv-C (Opaserv variant)
0.7 per cent (NEW ENTRY) 6= W32/Opaserv-D (Opaserv variant)
0.7 per cent (NEW ENTRY) 9. W32/Elkern-C (Elkern variant)
0.6 per cent 10. W32/Opaserv-B (Opaserv variant)
0.5 per cent (NEW ENTRY)