The computer worm Mytob is spreading rapidly and Norman has detected new versions of the worm almost every day during the last weeks. The worm may give attackers access to infected computers.

Computer security company Norman ASA has during a short period of time discovered many new versions of the computer worm called Mytob. This is the most aggressively distributed worm family ever to be seen. Last month 30 % of all detected malware at Norman was different versions of Mytob.

- This is the highest amount of new email worms over a short period of time we have ever seen globally. The worm is distributed heavily and we are often seeing many new versions within one day, says senior virus analyst Snorre Fagerland at Norman ASA.

The worm is actually a combination of two previous worm families and can cause a lot of damage by giving unauthorized access to your machine. They can also be used to shut down firewalls and antivirus programs, and f.ex. attack other machines through remote control, without the infected user's knowledge.

Norman SandBox has so far detected and stopped most versions of this worm. Those few that were not detected initially were used to calibrate the Norman Sandbox in order to get a very high proactive detection rate on new variants.

Traditional antivirus methods are usually not able to detect this worm consistently and users should be aware of the potential risk of being infected, says Fagerland.

For more information, please contact:

• Senior virus analyst Snorre Fagerland, Norman ASA
• VP Marked and Busines dev. Audun Lødemel, Norman ASA tel:+47 93 44 65 31

http://sandbox.norman.no