SoBig virus is IT managers' top fear

The SoBig family of worms, which infected more victims than any other malicious virus last month, is causing IT managers serious grief, an IT security firm claimed yesterday.

"Forget The Osbournes - the SoBig family of worms, accounting for more than half of all virus reports [in July], is most likely to strike fear into the hearts of IT administrators," said Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst at antivirus vendor Sophos.

"The SoBig worms, and some of the other top 10 viruses, don't just spread via email; they use a variety of means.

"This underlines the importance of keeping antivirus protection up to date at all entry points to the company network."

Sophos identified 625 previously undetected viruses, worms and Trojans in July.

The antivirus firm found that a chain letter, purporting to share some of Bill Gates's fortune with anyone who passed it on to 10 other people, was the most prevalent hoax last month.

"An old chain letter promising that Bill Gates will share his personal fortune with anyone who forwards the email to friends and family has stormed to the top of the chart in July," said Belthoff.

"Chain letters and hoaxes waste valuable email bandwidth and can scare people into panicking about non-existent virus threats."