NA lists top 10 viruses of 2002

2002 has been a bumper year for viruses. With the close of year, it is time
to look back and examine which viruses did what and to whom. Anti-virus vendor,
Network Associates has put together a list of top 10 viruses that played havoc
with computer users around the world. The findings are based on the updates
provided by NA’s anti-virus research division - Anti-Virus Emergency Response
Team (AVERT).

According
AVERT update, this year, every virus that made it onto the top 10 list was a
Windows infector. This is a continuation of the trend that NA has been seeing
for the past 18-24 months. On an average this year, 75 per cent of all
submissions to AVERT were mass-mailing Windows infectors and NA expects this
trend to continue or increase. There are a couple of very positive indicators to
note about this year’s List: Of the top ten viruses this year, only Klez.h was
given a high-risk assessment by AVERT, and only for the home user market.
Additionally, 50 per cent of the viruses on the list first appeared in 2001.
This tells us that corporate customers are doing a much better job of protecting
their environments through active virus defense and through diligent updating,
policy management, and compliance tracking. However, home users still have some
way to go as they were the main reason those 2001 viruses remained on this year’s
list.

The following is the official AVERT top 10 list:

Badtrans.b; Bugbear.a; Elkern.c; Exploit-MIME.gen; Hybris (fam); Klez.h;
Magistr (fam); Nimda.a; SirCam.a and Yaha.g.

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