Sophos' report, compiled from a global network of monitoring stations, reveals that Netsky-P continues its domination at the top of the charts, with the top five most prevalent pieces of malware retaining their position from last month. There were no new entries in September's chart and just one re-entry - MyDoom-AJ.

While the overall proportion of infected email has dropped to an all time low of just one in 300 (0.33 per cent), the number of new threats continues to rise. In September Sophos identified 4,080 new threats, compared with just 1,998 in the previous month, bringing the total of malware protected against to 190,745. This clearly indicates that cyber criminals are increasingly moving away from mass mailed attacks in favour of more subtle and menacing attacks, targeted at just a small group of users.

The top ten list of malware in September 2006 reads as follows:

1. Netsky-P - 18.4 per cent
   
2. Mytob-AS - 14.1 per cent
   
3. Bagle-Zip - 6.3 per cent
   
4. Nyxem-D - 5.4 per cent
   
5. Netsky-D - 5.3 per cent
   
6. Mytob-E - 3.0 per cent
   
7. Mytob-C - 2.9 per cent
   
8. Zafi-B - 2.8 per cent
   
9. MyDoom-O - 2.8 per cent
   
10. MyDoom-AJ - 2.7 per cent - re-entry
    Others - 36.3 per cent

1. Olympic torch - 8.5 per cent
   
2. Hotmail hoax - 8.2 per cent
   
3. WTC Survivor - 7.9 per cent
   
4. Bonsai kitten - 4.5 per cent
   
5. MSN is closing down - 4.1 per cent
   
6. Bill Gates fortune - 3.2 per cent
   
7. Meninas da Playboy - 3.0 per cent
   
8. Justice for Jamie - 2.6 per cent
   
9. A virtual card for you - 2.5 per cent
   
10. Budweiser frogs screensaver - 2.0 per cent
    Others - 53.5 per cent

Related links: (Open in a new window.)
www.sophos.com/virusinfo/bestpractice/
www.sophos.com/feeds

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