Damaging, but devilishly clever

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21 May 2012

Damaging, but devilishly clever

10 February 2006

Everyone has heard of the biggest and the fastest but Panda Software has released its annual list of the cleverest viruses of 2003.

Everyone's heard of the biggest and the fastest, but anti-virus software specialist Panda Software has released its annual list of the cleverest viruses of 2003.

Most damaging: Bugbear.B This was the most frequently detected virus during 2003. Bugbear also caused long-term damage by disrupting many anti-virus and firewall programs, leaving computers defenceless against future attacks.

Most persistent: Klez.I The malware that just won't quit. It first appeared in April 2002 but it still appears in monthly rankings of the most frequently detected viruses.

Most ingenious: Gibe.C This worm came disguised as a security patch from Microsoft - so by trying to prevent a security breach, users opening the attachment unwittingly initiated one.

Most annoying: Blaster The rate of infection of this malicious code reached such levels that many computers were being continually re-infected. It also had a habit of repeatedly restarting computers (actually due to an error in the virus code itself).

Most cunning: Nachi A This one promised to play 'Robin Hood' to Blaster-stricken machines by removing the virus and the weaknesses it exploited. The Nachi.A virus kept to its word, but only at the cost of opening its own new vulnerabilities.

Most opportunistic: Ganda A By swiftly responding to public interest in the early stages of the Iraq war, this came as a file claiming to show satellite images of the Middle Eastern country.

Meanwhile, there is already a strong candidate for the most serious virus of 2004: MyDoom - dubbed 'SCObig' because its primary target was the web site of SCO, the Unix intellectual property company that wants licence fees from Linux users. Following Microsoft's lead in offering rewards to people who identify virus writers, SCO has offered a $250,000 bounty for information leading to the conviction of the author of the MyDoom worm.

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