The Old, the New, and the Ugly

In the latest edition of its monthly compilation, anti-virus software developer Sophos lists, in descending order from the most frequent to least, the top-ten frequently occurring viruses for the month of March.

This month’s chart is dominated by Word 32 macro-viruses taking six of the ten places. Coming in at number one, up from number two last month, is the Word 32 macro-virus I-Worm.MTX (a.k.a. Apology) at 17.2%.

The Visual Basic Script virus Kakworm moves up two spaces to number four at 14.4%; I-Worm.Hybris holds steady in the third slot at 10.3%; I-Worm.LoveLetter makes the big climb from seventh last month to fourth this month, joined by a new entry, I-Worm.Magistr, at 3.8%.

Sharing the sixth spot on this month’s chart are the Trojan JetHome (up from nine last month) and another new entry, I-Worm.Naked, at 3.4%; and sharing the eighth slot are I-Worm.Navidad (still spreading its Christmas anti-cheer although dropping from number five last month) and Macro.Word97.Marker (holding at eight) at 3.1%.

Worm.RC5.a (a.k.a. Bymer) re-enters the top ten at ten at 2.4%, with the remaining 35.1% occupied by various other viruses, worms, and Trojans.

Be sure to keep an eye open come next month for the continuing drama that is “The Virus Top Ten.”

Kaspersky researchers have discovered new Mirage Kitten attacks using previously undocumented malware families: NodeRabbit in Node.js and PollCat in JavaScript.

Our experts discovered a new CoolClient backdoor variant with a kernel-mode rootkit driver that hides malicious processes, files, and network connections from security tools and threat analysts.

Kaspersky experts break down a new Armored Likho campaign that poses as a fundraising efforts and delivers a new Still Toolkit aimed at stealing Telegram data and eavesdropping on victims.

Kaspersky researchers reveal previously undocumented malware attributed to Mirage Kitten (UNC1549, Smoke Sandstorm, Nimbus Manticore): NightLedger backdoor, ArcBridge, and BridgeHead tunneling tools.