1-1. Annual virus incident report for 2002
-- W32/Klez had the worst number of reports ever --

In 2002, 20,352 reports were submitted to IPA, and the number decreased slightly compared from 2001 having 24,261 reports. W32/Klez had the worst number reported for 9 consecutive months, having 9,648 reports (approximately 50% of total), which made a single virus to have the worst number of reports ever for a year. This was followed by W32/Badtrans having 3,336 reports and W32/Hybris having 870 reports.

For more information, please refer to "Computer Virus Detection Incident Reports in 2002"

1-2. December computer virus incident reports

In December, 1,135 reports were submitted to IPA (November: 1,408 reports). The top number of viruses reported were W32/Klez having 465 reports with new variants having subjects such as "Happy Christmas" and "Happy New year", W32/Bugbear having 133 reports, and W32/Opaserv and VBS/Redlof, having 67 reports.

In addition, an alert was announced for a massive spread of virus mail during the year change period since there was a concern, but there was no serious viral damage.

Caution necessary for infection through web page !!

There are viruses, such as VBS/Redlof, where infection is obtained just by browsing a web page. When infected with this virus, infection is spread through ways provided below. 

 *Infected computer will record the virus program in the body of the sending e-mail, hence spreads the infection. 

 *Infects HTML and other files on the computer, and when the infected file is uploaded on the web page without noticing this, infection will spread to people who browse the web page.

Especially, there are more cases where one gets infected through browsing a web page, so caution is necessary.

There are various ways for virus infection to happen. The most common type is obtained through attached file on the e-mail, such as W32/Klez and W32/Bugbear. But there are infections obtained from browsing a web page, such as W32/Nimda and VBS/Redlof, and infections obtained from shared network, such as W32/Opaserv.

In order to prevent infection damages through various paths from happening, it is essential to use the anti-virus software with the latest version of virus detecting data file on a constant monitoring setting.

3 steps for anti virus software

1. Must be installed === Necessity for countermeasure
2. Appropriate setting === Constant monitoring setting is effective
3. Updating virus detecting data file === New virus emerges everyday Update at least once a week !

• Computer Virus Incident Reports for December, 2002 (full report)

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