Virus epidemic due to hit in August

Virus epidemic could hit in August, a month traditionally known for virus epidemics, according to Kaspersky Labs.

According to the anti-virus vendor, evidence of this can be found from previous years with Lovesan coming out in August 2003, numerous Mydoom variants in August 2004 and Mytob/ Bozori (aka Zotob) in August 2005.

Nearly all of these outbreaks were preceded by the disclosure of Windows vulnerabilities, therefore any epidemics hitting local shores this month would depend on whether new vulnerabilities are found, said Kaspersky Labs.

The last significant epidemic was caused by Nyxem.e in January this year. The only malicious programs which could cause a serious outbreak at this stage are Scano or Bagle, and even then they are only showing brief flashes of activity, the compnay said.

According to Kaspersky, NetSky.q, the ultimate leader of 2004, was also a frequent visitor to the top of the table in 2005 and the first half of 2006.

However, in the later half of 2006, this worm fell 12 places, to 15th place. In July it left the rankings altogether, achieving on 22nd place.

Exactly the same happened with NetSky.t, it returned to the rankings at the beginning of the year, rose steadily up the table, dropped from 15 places to 20 place in June, and this month fell to 25th place, with 0.65 percent, Kaspersky said.

Kaspersky said users aren’t seeing new worms, well known families, like the numerous Mytob variants are asserting themselves. June brought the return of Mytob.ar, and a newcomer, Mytob.cg, to the rankings.

This month, Nyxem.e. and Mytob.c are separated by a single percentage point - this makes it all the more interesting to see what will happen in August, said Kaspersky.

The LovGate family noticeably lost ground - three variants of this worm have figured in recent Top Twenties. Although LovGate.w is still holding its own in the top five, LovGate.ad dropped twelve places and may well follow NetSky.q and .t out of the rankings in August.

Scano.e, a polymorphic script worm, is continuing to hover at the bottom of the table, according to the anti-virus vendor, in June it appeared in 19th place, seemingly simply to remind users of its existence, Kaspersky said.