In recent weeks Klez has hit the top of anti-virus vendors lists of most reported viruses. Kaspersky Labs, MessageLabs and Trend Micro have all listed Klez as the most reported virus in their stats.
But Jan Hruska, joint chief executive at anti-virus software vendor Sophos, predicts we haven't seen the last of Klez. "I have this feeling we're going to see quite a bit of Klez for quite a few months," Hruska said. "It's reached the critical stage of an epidemic, where it will continue to evade people whose computer systems aren't adequately protected."
According to Hruska, although Klez was a relatively simple virus the combination of less than ideal end-user education and companies not keeping their anti-virus software up-to-date had contributed to its prolific spread.
-There are also a lot of variants, which means we as an anti-virus industry have to be on our toes to give correct protection in as short a time as possible to end users," Hruska said.
Hruska was involved in setting up the UK-based anti-virus software vendor in the mid 1980s, initially as a data security company which supplied programming modules for companies which wanted to protect against eavesdropping.
When viruses started to hit in 1986 they realised that the company's modules, designed to guarantee the integrity of programs, could be effectively used against viruses, Hruska said.
Hruska points to recent surveys by the UK's Department of Trade and Industry as an example of the increasing importance companies are placing on protecting themselves against virus threats.
However, he urges CIOs and IT managers to talk to non-technical managers in business, rather than IT, language. -People normally switch off if you try and explain things in too technical terms," Hruska said. -Present a business case which is much easier to understand and then the techie bits come later."
-I think it's a matter of technical people realising it's not just a question of bites and bytes but of running a business, and general management will look at it in terms of the business progressing and going in the right direction," he added.
Hruska said the virus industry was dealing with a glut of new viruses, and existing viruses, infecting more machines. -The anti-virus industry is very much reactive," he said. -It's a mad scramble to find out how a particular virus works, reverse engineer it, and deliver the solution, detection and disinfection to the end customer."
