2005 Least-Wanted Virus List

The top ten malware threats of 2005 have been named in a Sophos Security report.

The lingering Zafi-D worm takes top-spot on the virus chart. Last year’s hard hitting Netsky-P dropped to second place. Sober-Z, unleashed in November 2005, climbed-up to third position.

The report says 2005 saw a 48 percent rise in the number of new threats. According to the report, almost 15 907 new malware threats were identified during the course of the year, with an average one in every 44 emails being viral – a figure rising to one in 12 during major out-breaks.

The report further goes on to say that unprotected computers have a 40 percent chance of being infected by an internet worm in ten minutes, thereby turning them into zombies.

The top ten in the virus list for 2005:

1  Zafi-D
2  Netsky-P
3  Sober-Z
4  Sober-N
5  Zafi-B
6  Mytob-BE
7  Mytob-AS
8  Netsky-D
9  Mytob-GH
10 Mytob-EP