By Will Sturgeon, 30 May 2003 15:47
NEWS In a week when one university's decision to start teaching students to write new viruses has dominated the tech headlines, it is both fitting and alarming that two new viruses should have marked themselves out as the most virulent malware of the past month.
Palyh and Fizzer, the scourge of system administrators during May accounted for 19.9 per cent and 9.8 per cent of all virus reports during the month, making them by far the most prolific infections for users to watch out for.
Such was their impact that they topple uber-virus Klez which has dominated the charts for the past 16 months.
Palyh caused particular concern and confusion as it arrived in an email which purported to be from support@microsoft.com - a fact which duped many unsuspecting users into clicking on its attachment.
Other news saw Nimda and Opaserv make an unwelcome return to the top 10 in new variant versions, as monitored by Sophos.
The full top 10 for May looks like this:
1. W32/Palyh-A (Palyh) 19.9 per cent
2. W32/Fizzer-A (Fizzer) 9.8 per cent
3. W32/Klez-H (Klez) 7.1 per cent
4. W32/Lovgate-E (Lovgate) 4.2 per cent
5. W32/Sobig-A (Sobig) 3.1 per cent
6. W32/ElKern-C (ElKern) 2.4 per cent
7. W32/Bugbear-A (Bugbear) 1.9 per cent
8. W32/Yaha-P (Yaha) 1.6 per cent
9. W32/Nimda-D (Nimda) 1.4 per cent
10. W32/Opaserv-G (Opaserv) 1.1 per cent
Others 47.5 per cent.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below