Sophos Announces Top 10 Threats

LONDON -- Sophos, a world leader in IT security and control, has revealed the most prevalent malware threats causing problems for computer users around the world during March 2007.

March 2007 Highlights

Netsky family continued to top the chart, accounting for nearly one third of all malware this month

China pushed the U.S. from the top spot for countries hosting the most malware

The UK is now responsible for hosting more than 5 percent of malware-infected websites – that figure was 1 percent in December 2006

One in 555 emails (0.18 percent) was infected in March 2007

Sophos detected 8,835 new threats in March, bringing the total protected against to 231,548

“This month’s numbers indicate that while malware spreading via email is still causing problems, the vectors used to distribute threats are changing, “said Ron O’Brien, senior security analyst at Boston-based Sophos. “Hackers are continuing to move away from mass-mailing worms in favor of using spam messages that have links directing them to infected web pages. Protection for these threats has been around for quite a while – we’ve offered protection against Netsky for more that three years. The bottom line is that it’s critical that users keep their security up-to-date to avoid falling prey.”Sophos plc