Some Observations on Top Twenty Viruses in June

In the top twenty virus list for June 2007, some known names lead the batch. They are not the typical old worms but viruses dating even back.

Netsky.q that was the leader throughout 2004 and 2005 has returned to the top of the Top 20 viruses in June this year. The next worm to appear in large numbers was the Bagle.gt also from an old family of worms and a leader in May 2007. The other variant Netsky.t took the third place, reported information security software vendor Kaspersky Lab.

A most striking incident in June 2007 was perhaps the fading out of Sober.aa, a much-prevalent virus in May 2007. The virus had remained in the shadows for six months after which it suddenly emerged occupying the fourth position before vanishing again.

Three new virus variants set themselves in the top 10. Warezov.oz ranked high on the fifth spot. With this a continuous series of new variants from unknown writers is likely to be around. The Warezov-infected computers are generally involved in spamming activities, says Kaspersky, which published this in news on July 2, 2007.

Warezov has moved ahead leaving many worms down the tail. One such virus is the Zhalatin family of worms. This worm was non-existent for the second consecutive month in June 2007. Other viruses like Feebs and Scano are gradually sliding down the ladder only to disappear without notice, just as Sober.aa faded out.

Some experts argue that the four worm families Netsky, Mytob, Bagle and Warezov could remain active for a long period of time that could even span years.

The lower half of the top Twenty was again improperly settled. There were still some previous variants of Mytob and Netsky, while some interesting new viruses joined the list for e.g Virus.Win32.Grum.a. The Exploit.Win32.IMG-WMF.y continued to take advantage of vulnerabilities in WMF files, said Kaspersky Lab. This exploit was employed to scatter some variants of Feebs.

Other malware accounted for 11.40 percent of the malicious codes detected in e-mail traffic. This indicates the presence of a relatively good number of other worms and trojans in the wild.

Related article: Some Suggestions to Deter ‘Windows Rot’

» SPAMfighter News - 7/17/2007