Virus attacks up 50%
06/04/2005 12:25  - (SA)  

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Washington - Computer virus incidents grew 50% in 2004 even in the absence of a major new attack, a security survey showed on Tuesday.

The survey by Cybertrust's ICSA Labs found that the frequency of attacks, and costs to businesses affected by those attacks, increased again for the 10th consecutive year.

The survey found a rate of 392 "virus encounters" per 1 000 computers per month last year, up 50% from 2003. The amount of infections also increased to a rate of 116 per month.

ICSA said the number of "virus disasters", where 25 or more PCs or servers are infected at the same time in an organisation, was up 12% from the previous year.

Of the 300 companies responding to the survey, 112 reported a virus disaster, compared with 92 reported in 2003.

The survey found that recovery time and costs from virus attacks rose 25% from 2003.

"This survey shows that the malicious code problem worsened, even though 2004 was a year where there were no major worm events, such as Blaster, Sobig, Nachi triumvirate in August of 2003," said Peter Tippett, chief technology officer at Cybertrust.

"While we may be making some progress in reducing the number of virus encounters that become virus infections, the sharp increase in the sheer number of attacks means that the affect on businesses continues to escalate."

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