Security News
February Virus Top 10
Wed, 08 March 2006
The return of the Netsky.P
Avira reveals today the malware ranking for February, based on statistic data and experts’ opinion. After a few months of massive Sober family domination, the king of malware – Netsky.P once again goes sky-high on our chart. Being the number one threat in January Virus Top 10, Sober.P completely disappeared, having stopped its mailing routine.
The second position of this month's ranking is occupied by the new entry – Bagle.FI. At a closer look to the monthly virus statistics, we noticed however a small difference of 3.2 percent between the first two positions. Detailed analysis showed that this malware is not an enhanced variant but a slightly modified version of an old, more than one year old version. The worm Bagle.FI uses its own email engine in order to send messages with the subject: "price", blocks access to security websites and disables security applications.
Besides the supremacy of the Netskys and the new menace – Bagle.FI, there is another new entry in this virus top - TR/Drop.Bagle.FR. Spreading via email and P2P (peer-to-peer network), this variant of Bagle was indeed an enhanced variant compared to the previous. Furthermore it creates another Trojan downloader called “TR/Dldr.Bagle.FR”.
However on the low profiled ranks we still see file infectors such as: W32/Funlove.4099, W95/Spaces.1445.B, W32/Parite or W32/Xorala. Most of them do not have their own spreading routine, but once a mass mailer is on the machine, it becomes infected and carries the file infector piggyback.
The virus experts once again recommend all users to be careful with suspicious emails and unexpected attachments, no matter what interesting subjects they might claim to be carrying.
Here is a first shot of our February Virus Top 10:
For technical information on any of these worms, please see the detailed descriptions on the Avira website. Also, please keep in mind that all Avira users are perfectly protected against these threats. Make sure you update Avira on a regular basis in order to stay safe from malware.
|
On to the second part of our monthly malware analysis, we find little change in the phishing ranking in February:
| Phishing |
Count |
| PayPal |
48.86% |
| Ebay |
22.04% |
| Barclay’s |
4.37% |
| Credit Union |
3.33% |
| Amazon |
2.91% |
| Wells |
2.70% |
| Chase |
2.49% |
| Volksbank |
2.29% |
| Others |
11.02% |
There is no surprise to find out that the first two positions in the phishing ranking are occupied by PayPal and Ebay, knowing the huge popularity of Ebay and Paypal.
One thing to note is that we received an increasing amount of Spanish phishing in February. However the phishing websites were shut down before we could do further analysis.
|
If you want to know more about these forms of cyber crime, please see or search for detailed descriptions on our website:
www.avira.com/en/threats/index.html For more information on how to recognize a phishing fraud, take your time to read our dedicated page:
www.avira.com/en/virus_information/what_is_phishing.html Remember that we are here to assist you against the malware threat. Get rid of your doubts when facing a suspect file: just send it to and we will analyze it for you. Take a moment to see how to submit malware and then follow our instructions to send the suspicious file:
http://original.avira.com/en/pages/How_to_submit_malware.html About Avira GmbHAvira (formerly H+BEDV) is one of the leading providers of IT-security software solutions for professional use. As one of the pioneers in this area, the German company has repeatedly contributed to the security market since its launch of AntiVir in 1988 with technological innovations and intelligent new solutions to protect all network components and network levels.
The Avira headquarters are in Tettnang, a Swabian town located near Lake Constance. The company, which was founded as H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH in 1986, works in close cooperation with the BSI (Federal Office for Information Security) and maintains technology partnerships with leading security providers. Companies all over the world, financial and
IT service providers, public institutions, educational institutes and public clients trust in the security solutions of Avira and protect themselves with AntiVir.
The first on-access scanner under UNIX, based on an originally developed Open Source project “Dazuko” (file access control), is just one example. Another is the world's first certified malware protection solution for SAP. Or the security products for mobile devices, which achieved market maturity very quickly. The AntiVir scanner has been awarded the VB100% a number of times.
Website:
www.avira.com
Virus threats 
Print this page
.gif)
