Email viruses hit record levels in 2005

EMAIL viruses reached record levels in December according to statistics from hosting company IE Internet.

The latest data shows that 23.4% of emails circulating in December contained an attachment with malicious code.

The sharp increase in virus levels, which reached 16.51% in November, is mainly attributable to the proliferation of the Sober.Z mass-mailing worm.

In November, IE Internet’s statistics showed that Sober.Z was present in over 15% of infected email, making it one of the most widespread viruses in circulation.

By the end of December this figure had climbed to 45.2% of the total, eclipsing all other viruses combined.

Other viruses detected by IE Internet’s filters last month included Zafi.D, Netsky.P and variants of the Mytob worm.

IE Internet’s technical manager Ken O’Driscoll said: “The higher than usual infection rate can be explained by the fact that many businesses close for several days over the Christmas period, giving viruses a chance to spread widely before being caught by filtering software.”

IE Internet’s statistics also reveal a slight decline in the volume of spam delivered to Irish email users last month. Spam accounted for 38.93% of emails delivered in December from the previous month’s rate of 41.99%.

The US continues to produce the vast majority of spam emails with more than four in every 10 spam emails originating in the US. Korea and China are second and third behind the US in terms of overall spam production.