 |
The latest bulletin from the virus battlefront shows that more attacks are coming from more directions. The word comes from ICSA Labs, 7th Annual Virus Prevalence Survey. The survey collects data from 300 companies and government agencies, to track virus trends and to understand how IT administrators are fighting back against malicious code.
What ICSA Labs calls 'multiple vector threats', like Nimda, will use a variety of routes to attack computer systems. Another trend, foreshadowed by Code Red, has the virus embedding itself and propagating through host computers on the Internet.
Despite rising spending on virus protection, the study says, infection rates continue to rise for a number of reasons: more devices are attaching to networks in different ways; new kinds of viruses are emerging; newer email programs are providing delivery pathways; and, virus developers are programming new ways to replicate in their code.
The survey found that the hard and soft costs of virus infections at the average company were between $100,000 and $1 million a year. Viruses are becoming more costly and destructive, doing more damage to data and systems than in the past. The major cost of a virus attack is loss of productivity, but organizations are also losing more data and more files are being corrupted.
Bad news for people who fight viruses: they are much more likely to be hit with an unknown threat than one that has already been identified because viruses are propagating so much faster. The survey concludes that a reactive approach to anti-virus systems is no longer good enough. Organizations now need to get the most out of existing security resources; anti-virus vendors must build better threat 'anticipation' into their products; and, applications vendors must make their products much less vulnerable to infection.
|
|
|
Despite rising spending on virus protection, the study says, infection rates continue to rise for a number of reasons: more devices are attaching to networks in different ways; new kinds of viruses are emerging; newer email programs are providing delivery pathways; and, virus developers are programming new ways to replicate in their code.
|
|
|
