Commtouch records four major Jan. viruses

Commtouch Software reported Wednesday that January saw four major virus attacks sweep through the Internet.

The growth in available speeds on the Net helped spread the attacks, one of which included seven variants of a single infection, the security-software company said.

"The number of massive attacks grew in January," said company President Amir Lev. "In large part due to the speed of distribution, they succeeded in reaching many of their targets despite the presence of traditional anti-virus programs."

Commtouch's review of January activity found 19 new e-mail viruses making the rounds, most of which were classified as "low intensity," although four were rated as "massive attack."

Lev said massive attacks was relatively rare, and one of them morphed from a low-intensity attack into a fast-moving massive event as subsequently released variants kept the attack rolling.

Common spam traffic continued to flow across cyberspace as well, with the majority of the unwanted e-mails coming out of the United States.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International