Johannesburg, 22 Jul 2004
Computer Associates International, Inc (NYSE: CA) has raised the threat assessment for Bagle and MyDoom variants, and is warning that individual virus incidents in the wild and the number of variants being encountered by home and business users are climbing alarmingly.
"With five Bagle variants in six days, several new techniques and the re-emergence of MyDoom, there is an intense threat environment across the Internet," said Sam Curry, vice-president of eTrust security management at CA.
"There is also increased probability that a new variant of the Netsky worm may emerge as the original `race to Z` was between Bagle and Netsky. Internet users should protect themselves and stay up-to-date for their own safety and to help ensure the overall safety of the Internet."
CA`s Security Advisor, which quickly researches and responds to global threats via a network of rapid response centres around the world, says counts for the following "in the wild" viruses are rising dramatically:
* Win32.Bagle.AE (High) - aka Bagel.AH, Bagel.AI and Beagle.AG.
* Win32.Bagle.AB (Medium) - Bagel.AF, Beagle.AB.
* Bagle.AC (Medium) - aka Bagel.AH and Bagel.AG by other anti-virus vendors.
* Mydoom.N (Medium)
* Duts (Low) - aka Dust and Dtus, a mobile virus and the first to affect Windows CE.
Several of these viruses represent "blended" or "hybrid" threats, employing many techniques to deliver their harmful payloads (eg file share and mail worm vectors, "spoofed" e-mail addresses and backdoor Trojans). Internet users are advised to be wary of unusual e-mails, especially those that are out-of-character from the sender, and to not inherently trust any attachments.
CA has released signatures for these viruses for its eTrust Antivirus and eTrust EZ Antivirus software. However, since vendors use different names to track these viruses, CA Security Advisor recommends that users check their vendor`s sites to keep track of the latest variants and to update their software at least daily as multiple strains are coming out rapidly.
For additional information, please visit http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/.
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