According to Central Command, the Sasser worm is close to 50 per cent most prevalent virus in computing. Central Command, which provides PC anti-virus software and computer security services, has released its monthly listing of the top twelve viruses reported for May, 2004. The report, coined the “”Dirty
Dozen””, is based on the number of virus occurrences confirmed through Central Command’s Emergency Virus Response Team.
The table below represents the most prevalent viruses for
May 2004, number one being the most frequent.
Ranking Virus Name Percentage
1. Worm/Sasser 49.1%
2. Worm/Netsky.P 16.1%
3. Worm/Netsky.Z 5.4%
4. Worm/Netsky.D.Dam 5.1%
5. Worm/Netsky.Q 3.7%
6. Worm/Netsky.C 2.8%
7. Worm/Netsky.B 2.0%
8. Worm/Bagle.AA 1.5%
9. Worm/Netsky.A 1.1%
10. Worm/Bagle.Z 0.7%
11. Worm/MyDoom.F 0.4%
12. Worm/Sober.G 0.3%
Others 11.8 per cent
“”The pesky Netsky worm family once again occupied a vast majority of the positions in May. However, the largest virus epidemic for the month was Worm/Sasser,”” said Steven Sundermeier, vice president of products and services at Central Command.
“”Discovered on April 30th, Sasser quickly raged havoc across the Internet and crippled thousands of Windows systems worldwide. Many spooked Windows 2000 and XP users found their computers continually rebooting for no apparent reason, a common sign of a Sasser infection.””
Sasser spread by exploiting a known Windows LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service) vulnerability.