The Top Ten viruses during May were:
- W32/SirCam.A-mm – 42131
- W32/Klez.E-mm – 32816
- W32/Magistr.B-mm – 13403
- W32/Hybris.B-mm – 7692
- W32/BadTrans.B-mm – 7388
- W32/Magistr.A-mm – 6761
- W32/Yaha.A-mm – 3667
- W32/MyLife.B-mm – 3177
- W32/MyLife.F-mm – 2940
- W32/Navidad.E1-mm – 2878
Commentary: May 2002
The major new contenders in the virus chart for May were the MyLife variants, a series of mass mailing viruses – some of which attempted to delete files from hard drives. The second of these variants, MyLife.B, persuaded users to open its attachment by promising a funny caricature of 'Bill'. On opening the attachment the virus starts e-mailing out to all contacts in the address book. At the same time a cartoon character is shown playing a saxophone with a bra hanging out of it and wearing a badge displaying the name 'Bill'. Whether this is in fact meant to represent Bill Clinton is unclear!
MyLife.B was followed in quick succession by ten other variants, four of which the writer released over the Easter Bank Holiday.
It's interesting to note that many of the later viruses didn't have a large impact – perhaps because they lacked the social engineering of MyLife.B. Yaha.A is still maintaining high numbers, despite arriving in an e-mail proclaiming itself as a Valentine screen saver.
The Navidad.E1 variant, coming in at Number Ten, turned out to be Navidad.E cross-infected with Magistr.B Most of the copies we stopped at MessageLabs were from one source, but we did see a small amount of copies from other sources. All of the scanners we tested were able to detect this variant.
Source
SMT
Postscript
This section of Secure IT is supplied by MessageLabs. MessageLabs scans e-mail traffic at the Internet level, such that the company is able to compile the most accurate virus statistics available.
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