Old Viruses Reemerged, but Spam Dropped in February

Ireland-based security and IT services firm, IT Force, has listed the names of ten most prolific viruses detected in February 2009 among which some old strains like MyDoom, Zafi and Nimda made a comeback.

The company says that Nimda occupying the fifth spot is a complex virus as it features a bulk mailing component that disseminates infection through attachments called README.EXE and impacts computers running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, and 2000.

The second old strain Zafi is positioned on the sixth spot, which represents the virus family that affects computers with its backdoor features. It makes passage through the port 8181 for the transfer of a file that is mostly malware-infused.

MyDoom is the all-time virus that mostly propagates via e-mail with various headings, body text and differently named attachments. In fact, with it positioned on the ninth spot, distribution of viruses through e-mail seems to be receding. This has been possible since the security sector is getting better with its mechanisms to detect such viruses.

Some other viruses that IT Force analyzed include Worm.Prolaco-1 placed on the first spot, Trojan.Delf-5385 placed on the second and Worm.W32.Agent-1m on the third on the IT Force's list. The viruses' positions suggest that they acted most maliciously and caused the greatest damage during February 2009.

Another worm called Worm.Mytob.AY, placed on the seventh spot, also acted maliciously. This virus has been re-emerging in various versions since the last four years. The malware makes passage in ports, diminishes security guard on infected machines as well as prevents access to security websites. Additionally, it does not let the Windows Task Manager to open, while preventing IT administrators from inspecting and disabling the virus' infection processes.

Other malicious viruses are Worm.SomeFool.P on the fourth spot and Trojan.PostCard-eml-3 on the eighth spot.

In addition, IT Force found that spam in Ireland recorded 79% of the region's total e-mail in February 2009, with a 2% decline over the preceding month. Moreover, the company examined 576,740 e-mails among which it identified 452,834 e-mails as unsolicited or spam.

Related article: Old Widow Fall Victim to E-fraud with Lure of $30 Million Inheritance

» SPAMfighter News - 3/18/2009