In what has been a relatively quiet month as far as viruses go, the Klez worm continues to dominate malicious code lists worldwide and infection rates are higher than ever. According to MessageLabs` June month-end statistics, Klez and its variants alone account for more than the total virus counts of previous months.
The Klez worm, which first emerged in April this year, accounts for more than 60% of virus reports, according to the Central Command`s "Dirty Dozen" list released yesterday. Klez is a self-mailing mass worm that incorporates its own SMTP engine to mail copies of itself to the addresses in the Windows address book.
Number two on the Central Command list for the month of June is the Klez-re
lated Elkern worm (24.5%). The Elkern virus is dropped by variants of the Klez worm, in effect making it an extension of the biggest virus threat and the two together represent more than 80% of all virus threats.
The most notable of the new worms circulating is the Yaha worm (2.6%) which entered this month`s list at number four, just behind the Sircam worm (3.9%). Disguised as a friendship screensaver, W32/Yaha.E is a Windows-based worm that is capable of sending out thousands of messages to a single e-mail address from a single infected machine. The worm uses addresses in the Windows address book, the MSN Messenger list, ICQ and a Yahoo Pager list, according to Symantec`s Security Response team.
The balance of Central Command`s top 12 include Nimda (2.3%), Magistr.B (1.9%), Frethem.D (1.6%), Badtrans (0.7%), CIH (0.4%), Hybris (0.4%), Magistr.A (0.2%) and Shakira (0.1%).
"While Klez continued its relentless march in the history books, we once again saw much focus on exploiting high-profile events and celebrities this month," says Steven Sundermeier, product manager at Central Command. "The global exposure of the World Cup brought a frenzy of new worms and viruses, as did the growing popularity of Latino pop star Shakira."
MessageLabs also released month-end statistics yesterday that highlight a very similar pattern to the Central Command list with variants of the Klez worm dominating the top 10. Yaha features at number three on the MessageLabs list, confirming its status as a new and increasing threat.
MessageLabs figures also suggest that despite the relatively low-profile of malicious code in the past month, activity has been higher than ever with the Klez variants accounting for about 800 000 of the total 1.2 million infections recorded by the company. May figures, previously the highest figures for the past 12 months, sit at only 800 000.
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