As in previous years, Christmas 2002 was preceded by warnings of viruses exploiting people's propensity to open e-mails with a seasonal goodwill theme. However, the threat has failed to materialise, leading anti-virus executives said. They added that, overall, the level of virus contamination had remained constant over the Christmas break. "I didn't see any of those, or hear of any," David Banes, Asia Pacific regional manager for security company Symantec told ZDNet Australia . "I was surprised. I also thought we'd see some targeting the new year, but we haven't."
Social engineering as a way to spread viruses may be on the wane, with five out of the top 10 viruses for November reported by Sophos Antivirus being Opaserv, which doesn't use social engineering, or indeed e-mail, to propagate.
"People are worrying too much about e-mail and not about other vectors, such as the fact their computer is wide open anyway." Paul Ducklin from Sophos told ZDNet Australia . He added that with so much bogus e-mail that people have become used to being wary of suspicious e-mail.
