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Antivirus experts have published their monthly reports, revealing record increases in virus numbers for October.
Both Sophos and Kaspersky Labs have said that last month they broke their own records in tracing new virus strains. Sophos now identifies and protects against 112,142 viruses, which is an increase of 1,685 from last month - the biggest rise the company has seen since records began. Kaspersky also reported that October was rich in malicious programs. In the space of a week, analysts added a record-breaking 1,400 new records to the company's antivirus database.
The security experts are putting the rise down to an increasing number of Mytob worm variants. The Mytob.c worm has been crowned by Kaspersky as the most prevalent example of malware in October and analysts at the Russian firm are predicting that the worm will become the most widespread malicious program of 2005.
Netsky-P remains at the top of Sophos' chart despite being first detected 20 months ago. The worm was written by convicted German teenager Sven Jaschen, but continues to spread as people have not updated antivirus software, says the company. Netsky variants also linger in Kaspersky's top twenty.
Sophos experts agree with Kaspersky that Mytob variants are a cause for concern. It revealed that almost two-thirds of the viruses reported to the company last month were versions of the Mytob worm, with Mytob-GH and Mytob-EX making a significant impact.
'The unfortunate onslaught of new threats this month is unsurprising as malware authors ramp up their game in their pursuit of hard cash,' said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos, 'The Mytob dynasty continues to grow - attacking networks thick and fast.'
The only other virus family to rear its ugly head in Sophos' top ten chart is Zafi.
The nature of last month's most common malware examples indicates that a new 'cyber war' is underway, say both Kaspersky and Sophos. Mytob writers, who appear to belong to gang called Hellbot are battling against writers of a new generation of worm, the Fanbot. One variant of the worm family, Fanbot.f, carries lines of text with attacks directed at the Hellbot gang, including 'The HellBot3 author is an idiot!!!', Kasperksy reports.
And there could be plenty more slanging matches to come with Kaspersky predicting that Fanbot variants will be among the most active viruses in the coming months.
Sophos' top ten are:
1 Netsky-P
2 Mytob-GH
3 Mytob-EX
4 Mytob-AS
5 Mytob-BE
6 Zafi-D
7 Netsky-D
8 Mytob-C
9 Zafi-B
10 Mytob-ER
Topic: Mybot infections crowd virus charts (Read 693 times)