Zafi top threat as Netsky nuisance persists

The Zafi worm was the most prominent virus of the past month, though the plague of Netsky variants continues to be a thorn in the side of any IT department.

Sasser is also lingering in the list of top 10 reported viruses, and Bagle and Sober are also present with one iteration each, but it is the continued spread and proliferation of Netsky that is cause for the greatest concern.

Zafi.B accounted for 30.4 per cent of all reported instances of viruses, according to figures from Sophos. Netsky variants P, D, Z, B, Q and C accounted for a further 18 per cent between them.

Carole Theriault, security consultant at Sophos, said: "The Zafi.B worm, which calls for changes to Hungarian legislation, such as the introduction of the death penalty to reduce crime, uses sophisticated social engineering tricks to dupe innocent recipients into opening the attachment and launching the virus. First seen on 11 June, Zafi.B, which spreads itself by peer-to-peer file-sharing systems and email, using a wide variety of different languages, is proving to be a real pest."

The full top 10 table of network nuisances, looks like this:

1. Zafi.B 30.4 per cent
2. Netsky.P 9.9 per cent
3. Sasser 6.8 per cent
4. Netsky.D 3.1 per cent
5. Netsky.Z 2.1 per cent
6. Netsky.B 1.6 per cent
7. Bagle.AA 1.2 per cent
8. Netsky.Q 0.8 per cent
9. Sober.G 0.7 per cent
10. Netsky.C 0.5 per cent

Others 42.9 per cent