Security software provider Kaspersky has just released a top 20 of the viruses that plagued the web last month. The results were not astounding, with the generic Trojan Email-Worm.Win32.NetSky.q still leading the board. As a matter of fact, out of the total 20 malicious programs, 15 were Trojans. In regard to the countries with the most intense infected e-mail traffic, the United States holds the top position, followed closely by South Korea and China.

Since it is summer and pretty much everyone is on vacation, relaxing in the sun, the virus statistics closely resemble those from May. The top three positions continue to be occupied by Trojans, Netsky and Nyxem. What is interesting is that for some malicious programs this is their first appearance in the top 20. Coming in at number 16 and 17 are two new invader programs called Net-Worm.Win32.Nimda and Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Injecter.ga. The other new programs come in at the bottom of the list: a WMF exploit ranks 19th and a Trojan called Email-Worm.Win32.LovGate.w on the 20th position.

The previously mentioned Nimda worm is not new, it is just new in the top 20. It originally came out back in 2001, but has resurfaced and it seems to be making quite a nice recovery. Nimda uses every opportunity it can find in order to propagate itself; this includes infected e-mail messages, network drives, LAN vulnerabilities, IIS server attacks. Once your system is infected, Nimda proceeds to creating a guest user account and making it possible for anyone on the network to access the data stored on your drives.

The WMF exploit that came in at number 19 called Exploit.Win32.IMG-WMF.y. is also new in the top 20. It propagates itself by e-mail, just that it has an "auto play" function. Usually, in order to open any media contained in an e-mail message, your consent is first required. In the case of this exploit the media is run automatically, meaning that the code executes itself without asking for your permission, immediately after you open the message.

The 3 most affected European countries are Spain, the UK and Germany, according to Kaspersky Labs. Other European countries that made it to the top 20 are France, Poland, Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands and the newcomer Ukraine.