The Nimda worm was the most infectious computer virus during September, according to the number of calls logged by anti-virus vendor Sophos. Nimda, which spreads via email or by scanning and uploading itself onto vulnerable web servers, accounted for 71.1% of calls to Sophos’ support centre in September.
In second place with 11.4% was SirCam, which had reigned supreme for the past two months, while the various forms of Magistr sulked into third spot with a disappointing 6.6%.
“Nimda attacks from every angle. It uses a multi-pronged method to exploit a number of known weaknesses [and] despite the high profile warnings, it is continuing to infect people who have failed to update their virus protection,” says Peter Cooper, UK support manager at Sophos Anti-Virus.
“Ensuring your operating system is fully patched and updated is as important as up-to-date anti-virus software,” he adds.
While Nimda was September’s undoubted champion, 890 new viruses were also discovered by Sophos. These discoveries have been duly added to the anti-virus vendors library, which now stands at a massive 68111.
