The newly released ICSA Labs 7th Annual Computer Virus Prevalence Survey, jointly sponsored by Panda Software, has revealed that more than 80% of viruses use e-mail as the principal means of propagation.
The survey, carried out between January 2000 and August 2001, includes data on the overall frequency of incidents, the most commonly detected viruses and the extent to which users are now protecting themselves against these types of threats.
The report recorded nearly 1.2 million virus incidents and noted a monthly increase of 20 cases per 1000 in the number of computers affected by malicious code.
E-mail is still by far the most common means of propagation used by viruses, although there has been an increase in the use of more sophisticated infection techniques. Web servers have now become a favorite target for virus writers, as demonstrated by Nimda and Code red. Nimda alone was responsible for 68 percent of total incidents recorded by the survey, largely due to its ability to spread through multiple infection channels.
The ICSA Labs report also observed that of the companies taking part in the survey, 28 percent suffered attacks involving more than 25 servers or PCs. These figures represent a drop with respect to those of earlier surveys.
Finally, the report looked at how companies are dealing with the threat of malicious code. In comparison with previous surveys, the results were also encouraging. Some 90 percent of participating companies claimed to have all of their computers protected with some kind of antivirus software, whilst 84 percent had protection for mail servers. However, only just over half the companies had protection for firewalls and just 45 percent had implemented antivirus protection in proxy servers.
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More than 80 percent of viruses enter via e-mail
New survey reveals