Number Of New Viruses In May Hits 30-Month High - Yikes

June 02, 2004
Number Of New Viruses In May Hits 30-Month High
By TechWeb News

The number of new viruses released on the Internet in May hit a two-and-a-half-year high last month, an anti-virus vendor said Wednesday. Five new viruses released in May made Sophos's Top 10 for the month. Included are Sasser, Netsky-Z, Sober-G, Bagle-AA, and Lovgate-V, the company said. Sasser led the pack in the number of infected machines reported.
Sophos found a total of 959 new viruses on the Internet in May, the highest number since December 2001. The number includes new viruses that were variants of older viruses.

In other virus news, security vendor Symantec on Wednesday upgraded the Korgo.F virus to a level 3 from a level 2, because of an increase in submissions, the company said.

"W32.Korgo.F includes backdoor functionality that could leave systems open to unauthorized access," Alfred Huger, senior director for Symantec Security Response, said in a statement. "This backdoor functionality could result in a loss of confidential data and may also compromise security settings."

Korgo.F attempts to propagate by exploiting a Windows XP and 2000 vulnerability reported by Microsoft on April 13.
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