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2 April 2002

Top ten viruses reported to Sophos in March 2002

This is the latest in a series of monthly charts counting down the ten most frequently occurring viruses as compiled by Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection.

For March 2002, the chart is as follows, with the most frequently occurring virus at number one:

Position Last
month		 Malware Percentage of reports
14W32/Klez-G
   23.7%
22W32/Badtrans-B
   22.8%
35W32/Magistr-B
   6.9%
4NewW32/FBound-C
   6.8%
56W32/Sircam-A
   4.8%
67W32/Magistr-A
   3.6%
7NewW32/Gibe-A
   3.0%
8NewW32/Caric-A
   2.1%
99W32/Hybris-B
   1.7%
103W32/Klez-E
   1.5%
Others23.1%

"Despite the appearance of new viruses like Bound and Caricature, it's Klez and Badtrans that have snatched the top slots this month," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus. "This demonstrates that it isn't just the newer viruses with higher profiles that users should be looking out for. Just because a virus isn't hitting the headlines doesn't mean it isn't continuing to cause problems."

The Caricature (W32/Caric-A) and Bound (W32/FBound-C) email worms, both of which emerged during March, attempt to play further confidence tricks on computer users. Caricature poses as a screensaver of Bill Clinton and Bound masquerades as a security patch. Once again, both of these worms can be protected against with anti-virus software and safe computing practices.

510 new viruses were discovered and protected against by Sophos Anti-Virus during March 2002.

The total number of viruses Sophos now detects and protects against is 73,079.

More information about Klez.

More information on Badtrans.

More information about safe computing.

Graphics of the above Top Ten chart are available here.

Compiled by Sophos's technical support team, the top ten chart is collated from calls to Sophos's 24 hour, 365 days a year technical support line.

About Sophos

Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.

Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com