Viruses are hitting harder - 03/23/04

Madrid, March 23, 2004 - According to ICSA Labs latest annual report on virus incidents, which is also reported by The Register, virus attacks in 2003 were more frequent and costly.

Last year, nearly one in three (30 percent) of the 300 organizations surveyed by ICSA Labs were hit by a serious virus infection(*), doubling the percentage reported in 2002 (which was around 15 percent). Similarly, recovery costs increased by 23 percent in 2003. Each virus disaster cost each organization surveyed approximately $ 100,000 (EUR 80,500).

Last year, the companies studied by ICSA Labs recorded a total of over 2.7 million virus encounters, with an average of 108 virus infections per 1,000 machines per month. According to 42 percent of those surveyed, August 2003 was the worst month of the year due to incidents caused by Blaster, Nachi and variants of Mimail. The second worst month was January, as this is when Slammer and the first Sobig worm emerged.

For further information about the viruses mentioned above and other computer threats, visit Panda Software's Virus Encyclopedia at:
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/encyclopedia

(*) ICSA Labs defines a serious virus infection (or "virus disaster") as a situation in which 25 or more computers (workstations or servers) are
infected by the same virus at the same time.