Virus top ten: SirCam leads the charge

The SirCam worm has stormed to the top of the charts, accounting for nearly two thirds of all virus reports submitted to anti-virus vendor Sophos in July.

SirCam, which affected thousands of businesses last month, forwards random files from the 'My documents' folder to everyone in an infected user's inbox.

The bug so far has claimed many high-profile victims including the Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma and perhaps more embarrassingly the National Infrastructure Protection Centre, the FBI's cyber-security arm.

Andre Post, senior researcher at Symantec, says the SirCam plague is now easing. Post added: "The appealing way email worms present themselves still compels novice users to click on attachments. They should think twice before blindly double clicking. If an email feels odd, it's better to be safe than sorry."

Although June's leader Magistr was first discovered in March, it still retains a level 4 (severe) warning from Symantec and takes second spot in the listings.

The list in full (figures represent percentage of total reported instances):

1. W32/Sircam-A (Sircam) 65.2
2. W32/Magistr-A (Magistr) 10.4
3. W32/Hybris-B (Hybris variant) 4.1
4. W32/Badtrans-A (BadTrans) 2.8
5. W32/Apology-B (Apology variant) 1.9
6. VBS/Kakworm (Kakworm) 1.4
7. Troj/Keylog-C (Keylog variant) 1.0
8. Joke/Hhold (Hhold) 0.8
= 9. W32/Flcss (Funlove) 0.7
= 9. W32/Qaz (Qaz) 0.7

For related news see:
Virus leaks Ukraine President's documents to press
http://www.silicon.com/a46240
SirCam turns the air blue as AV spat hots up
http://www.silicon.com/a46111
FBI out-smarted by SirCam bug
http://www.silicon.com/a46045
Virus top ten: Magistr rules the roost
http://www.silicon.com/a45882