Sophos Announces Top 10

BURLINGTON, Mass. -- Sophos, a world leader in integrated threat management solutions, has revealed the most prevalent malware threats and email hoaxes worldwide during December 2006.

The figures, compiled from Sophos's global network of monitoring stations, show that the long-established Dref malware has made an unexpected return to the top of the threat chart, thanks to two new variants currently causing computer users problems.

The Dref-V mass-mailing worm, which poses as a New Year e-card, was discovered on December 30, 2006, and by the following day, accounted for nearly 94 percent of all infected emails. As a result, Dref - which was first seen in July 2005 - has knocked last month's primary offender, Stratio, off of the top of the chart. Stratio, currently in fourth place, now accounts for 7.8 percent of the total.

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