Symantec says it has identified the first known 64-bit threat, the Rugrat virus. While this proof of concept virus is currently harmless, it could pave the way for future dangerous 64-bit viruses, says the company.
Ivor Rankin, Symantec technical, sales and system engineering manager for Middle East and Africa, says the virus forms part of a family of six proof of concept viruses developed by the same author or authors.
"While this virus is harmless in that it simply appends itself to executable files, it is significant as it is the first know instance of a virus that is able to infect 64-bit platforms," says Rankin.
"To date, many corporations have not protected their 64-bit platforms like Windows XP 64-bit edition, Windows XP 64-bit version 2003, Windows 2003 64-bit enterprise edition and Windows 2003 64-bit data centre edition with anti-virus software as they did not believe viruses would infect these platforms," he says.
Rankin says the creation of the Rugrat virus is seen as significant because it could pave the way for future malicious viruses. "The speed at which viruses have propagated have increased as networks and processing power has increased. If Rugrat were updated, its spread and damage would be exponential on 64-bit systems," he says.
Rugrat has been given the lowest threat rating and Symantec recommends that users update their virus definitions.
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