Wayne N. Kawamoto
Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com
Central Command, a provider of PC anti-virus software and computer security services released its monthly listing of the top twelve viruses reported for May, 2002. The report, coined the “Dirty Dozen”, is based on the number of virus occurrences confirmed through the company’s emergency virus response team.
The list below represents the most prevalent viruses for May 2002, number one being the most frequent.
1. Worm/Klez.E (includes G variant), 52.5%
2. W32/Elkern.C, 31.8%
3. W32/Nimda, 4.4%
4. W32/Magistr.B, 3.0%
5. Worm/W32.Sircam, 2.9%
6. Worm/Badtrans.B, 2.1%
7. W95/Hybris, 0.9%
8. W32/Magistr.A, 0.5%
9. Worm/Kazaa, 0.4%
10. W95/MTX, 0.3%
11. W95/CIH.A, 0.1%
12. W32/Gokar, 0.1%
“It was not a surprise that Worm/Klez.G continues to lead this months Dirty Dozen”, said Steven Sundermeier, product manager at Central Command. “With its powerful social engineering,
address spoofing, and network-spreading capacity, Worm/Klez.G became the king of all viruses, in terms of its prolificacy, early this month.”
The newcomer this month was Worm/Kazaa, a worm that spreads within the Kazaa file-sharing network, dropping over a gigabyte of files with names associated with movie titles, song titles, or T.V. shows.
