In expanding the field of knowledge,
we but increase the horizon of ignorance.
Henry Miller (1891-1980); US author.

-Top Ten viruses frequently detected
by Panda ActiveScan in February -
Oxygen3 24h-365d, by Panda Software (http://www.pandasoftware.com)

Madrid, March 5 2004 - In February 2004, according to the data gathered by
Panda Software's free online antivirus, Mydoom.A has been the malicious code
to have caused most infections of users' computers.

The Mydoom.A worm, which hit at the end of January, was by far the most
damaging virus worldwide. This worm was responsible for 14.04 percent of
infections. The second most frequently detected virus was the Trojan
Downloader.L (5.99%), which has been around for a few months now. Third in
the ranking however was Netsky.B (5.98%), which first appeared during
February. Fourth place was also occupied by a new virus, the Nachi.B worm,
designed to eliminate Mydoom from affected computers, but at the same time,
exploit a Windows vulnerability to spread to as many computer as possible.
This virus was detected by Panda ActiveScan in 4.53 percent of all positive
cases.

The malicious code occupying from fifth to tenth place were all less recent
examples, but which nonetheless continue to damage users' computers. These
include the polymorphic Parite.B (3.52%), and the veterans Bugbear.B (3.39%)
and Klez.I (2.65%), as well as the worms Blaster.E (2.07%), Sober.C (1.96%)
and Blaster (1.94%).

The following conclusions can be drawn from the data collected by Panda
ActiveScan last month:

- Over half the viruses in this ranking, like Klez.I, first appeared months
or even years ago. This suggests that there are still many computers that do
not have effective antivirus protection installed or if they do, it is not
correctly updated.

- Some of the viruses listed, such as Blaster, Blaster.E and Nachi exploit
software application vulnerabilities which their respective manufacturers
fixed a few months back. The fact that they keep on appearing in this
ranking indicates that users are not installing the patches that fix
security flaws as often as they should do.

To help as many users as possible keep their systems virus free, Panda
Software offers Panda ActiveScan, free of charge, at
http://www.pandasoftware.com/. Webmasters who would like to include
ActiveScan on their websites can get the HTML code, free of charge, from
http://www.pandasoftware.com/partners/webmasters/.

Panda Software also offers users Virus Alerts, an e-bulletin in English and
Spanish that gives immediate warning of the emergence of potentially
dangerous malicious code. To receive Virus Alerts just visit Panda
Software's website (http://www.pandasoftware.com/) and complete the
corresponding form in the Virus Alerts section.

For more information about these and other viruses, visit Panda Software's
Virus Encyclopedia at: http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia.

NOTE: The addresses above may not show up on your screen as single lines.
This would prevent you from using the links to access the web pages. If this
happens, just use the 'cut' and 'paste' options to join the pieces of the
URL.