Rubrik: World-wide News/Products & News

Central Command: Dirty Dozen - Top 12 - Viruses For March 2003

Worm/Klez.E and Worm/Yaha.E Reach Five Straight Months Of Leadership

(08.04.03) - Central Command, a provider of PC anti-virus software and computer security services released its monthly listing of the top twelve viruses reported for March, 2003. The report, coined the "Dirty Dozen", is based on the number of virus occurrences confirmed through Central Command's Emergency Virus Response Team.

  1. Worm/Klez.E (includes G)           21.6%

  2.W32/Yaha.E                                    10.8%

  3. Worm/Yaha.M                                8.9%

  4. Worm/Avril.B                                  6.4%

  5. Worm/Sobig.A                                6.3%

  6. Worm/Avril.A                                 5.8%

  7. Worm/BugBear                               4.6%

  8. W32/Funlove                                  2.3%

  9. Worm/Yaha.L                                  2.0%

10. Worm/Sircam.C                               1.7%

11. W32/Nimda                                      1.4%

12. Worm/Badtrans.B                           1.1%

Others                                                   27.1%

"Central Command saw no major changes in this month's Dirty Dozen," said Steven Sundermeier, product manager of Central Command, Inc. "Remarkably, the Internet worms Worm/Klez.E and Worm/Yaha.E have remained number one and two, respectively, for the past five months.  This is a clear indication that many users continue to ignore the importance of installing and maintaining up-to-date antivirus software." Worm/Klez.E accounted for 21.6% of all total virus infection reports for March and Worm/Yaha.E totalled 10.8%.

New viruses for the month included; Worm/Ganda and Worm/NiceHello. Worm/Ganda is an Internet worm socially engineered to capitalize on the world's current interest in the events of the Middle East. One of the randomly selected body messages claimed the attachment was a screensaver containing pictures taken by one of the US spy satellites during a mission over Iraq. Worm/NiceHello is an Internet worm that emailed itself to all addresses found within the MSN Messenger contact list. The email contents are written in Spanish.

Vexira Antivirus has been updated for 582 different viruses, worms and other malicious applications during the month of March 2003. Vexira Antivirus starts at 34.95 Dollar, and a free 30-day trial version may be downloaded from (www.centralcommand.com) or obtained by contacting Central Command at +1-330 723-2062. (ma)

Central Command, Inc

Kontakt: Steven Sundermeier, Product Manager

Tel. (001-330) 723-2062 x204, Fax (001-330) 722-6517

E-Mail: ssundermeier@centralcommand.com

Web: www.centralcommand.com