Panda ActiveScan Top 10 Viruses in October 2003
Bugbear.B heads the ranking of malicious code that have caused the highest number of attacks in October
According to the data gathered by Panda ActiveScan, Panda Software’s free online scanner, Bugbear.B once again heads the monthly list of the most virulent malicious code.
In September, this worm was responsible for just over five percent of infections detected by ActiveScan. In October however, it was responsible for over two percent more. This increase can no doubt be explained by its capacity to mass-mail itself and to exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer to run automatically.
Bugbear.B is closely followed by Gibe.C which was also the culprit in just over seven percent of incidents. This worm spreads via e-mail in a message which perfectly imitates the design of a Microsoft website to trick users into thinking that the attachment is a security patch.
In third place is the Blaster worm, which was responsible for just under six percent of infections. The fact that this worm spreads directly via the Internet and exploits the RPC DCOM vulnerability in Windows allows it to continue infecting unprotected computers.
Parite.B takes fourth place, having caused just over five percent of incidents. This virus spreads through the means normally used by viruses: CD-ROMs, Internet downloads, e-mail, etc. as well as across local networks.
In fifth and sixth place are Klez.I with over four and a half percent, and PSW.Bugbear.B with over three and a half percent.
Two variants of the Blaster worm, Blaster.E and Blaster.C come in sixth and seventh place, with over three percent of incidents each. Finally, at the bottom end of the ranking are Nachi.A and EnerKaz with over two and half percent of infections each.
From the data collected by Panda Software’s free online antivirus last month, it can be concluded that many computer users still haven’t applied the security patches released by Microsoft. Eight of the Top Ten malicious code spread by exploiting security flaws in the software installed on computers. In fact, the first virus in the ranking that does not rely on the fact that users have not applied security patches in order to spread is Parite. in fourth place and the second, Enerkaz is in tenth place.
Virus % frequency
W32/Bugbear.B 7.14
W32/Gibe.C.worm 7.02
W32/Blaster 5.95
W32/Parite.B 5.17
W32/Klez.I 4.53
Trj/PSW.Bugbear.B 3.63
W32/Blaster.E 3.20
W32/Blaster.C 3.17
W32/Nachi.A 2.58
W32/EnerKaz 2.55