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Story URL: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,11023702,00.htm

No Apology for same old virus
A number of new viruses attacked Europe last month, but it was the same old faces which plagued the majority of organisations.

By Chris Holbrook

Published: Wednesday 04 April 2001

According to security specialist Sophos, which compiles a monthly survey of virus activity, the Apology virus, also known as MTX, was the number one offender. It is still showing no remorse to companies which have not updated their defences with the latest security patches.

The virus is contained in an email attachment and when activated blocks users from accessing anti-virus websites for help.

Hard on the heels of Apology follows another golden oldie, Kakworm.

Notable new additions to the top ten viruses, however, came in the form of Magistr, Winux and the Naked wife virus.

Magistr, a polymorphic executable file virus, spreads by email as it contains its own SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) handler, allowing it to mass mail all the contacts within a user's Outlook, Netscape and Internet Mail address books.

The W32.Winux or Lion/Lindose virus, written by a Czech named Benny, is, however, not particularly fast spreading or destructive, but significantly is the first virus to attack both the Linux and Microsoft operating systems.

The Naked Wife, virus written in Visual Basic Script, also contains a destructive email payload and is another "newbie" featured near the top of the poll.

The Trojan virus infects a computer by deleting all DLL, INI, EXE, BMP, LOG and COM files in Windows and other system directories making it impossible to reboot an infected system.