The Virus Hall of Shame

The year 2003 could best be described as erratic in terms of computer virus
activity. Despite being a quiet year on the whole, it has been interspersed with
periods of high activity, particularly during the summer months when Blaster,
Nachi and Sobig.F were doing the rounds.

Regardless of the significance of the epidemics, each year there are a number
of viruses that stand out for one reason or the other. Panda Software has drawn
up a list of the most remarkable viruses over the last 12 months.

The most damaging virus: For two reasons this goes to Bugbear.B.
According to data gathered by Panda ActiveScan, it has been the most frequently
detected virus during 2003 and has caused most damage to users around the world.
It is also designed to terminate processes of a number of anti-virus and
firewall programs leaving PCs defenseless against future attacks from viruses
and hackers.

The most effective virus: SQLSlammer is hard to beat in this category.
In fact this malicious code, which attacks SQL servers, was able to bring large
sections of the Internet to a halt in just a few hours, affecting millions of
users.

The most persistent virus: Klez.I wins hands down. Despite having
first appeared in April 2002, it is still very much present in the monthly
rankings of the most frequently detected viruses. The way it uses ‘social
engineering’ and exploits a vulnerability in Internet explorer are the main
factors for the continued spread of this extremely tenacious and alicious code.

The most ingenious virus: in this category, Gibe.C stands out on its
own. The creator of this worm designed an HTML mail, purporting to be from
Microsoft, convincing many that the e-mail they had received -containing the
virus- actually contained a security patch released by the company.

The most annoying virus: This award goes to Blaster, which infects
computers by exploiting the RPC DCOM vulnerability, affecting several versions
of Windows. Due to an error in the virus code itself, Blaster caused many
infected computers to restart repeatedly. Similarly, the rate of infection of
this malicious code reached such levels that many computers were being
continually re-infected, even though they had already been disinfected.

The most cunning virus: Nachi.A, described itself as a kind of ‘Robin
Hood’ coming to the aid of computers stricken by Blaster. And, in truth, it
did just that. Nachi.A removed Blaster and even repaired the vulnerability that
Blaster exploited to infect computers. However, the cloud that lurked behind the
silver lining soon became apparent, as Nachi.A has been designed to exploit the
WebDAV vulnerability, which could allow all types of code to be run on
computers.

The most opportunist: Ganda.A which, by alluding to the war in Iraq
soon after it had started, tried to trick users into opening a file supposedly
containing satellite photos of the country.

The most rapid viruses: 2003 has witnessed the appearance of two of
the fastest spreading viruses in the history of computers: SQLSlammer and
Sobig.F. The latter, designed as a highly effective mass-mailer, was launched
from just a handful of computers and was spreading around the globe in millions
of e-mails in matter of hours.

CyberMedia News Service