Computer Viruses Hit 1 Million Mark In 2007
2007 was a record-breaking year for the development of malicious software, such as viruses and Trojan horses (a virus disguised as a regular computer program), according to internet security firm Symantec.
According to a report by the BBC News, Symantec reported that the number of malicious programs has passed the 1 million mark for the first time, although nearly half of these programs were actually developed and unleashed during the last calendar year. Most of these programs are variations on those which were previously developed and proved successful in infiltrating computers and network systems.
Many of the attacks that occur on computer systems consist of more than one element of so-called "malware." First, a trojan application, which, like the Trojan Horse from mythology, gains access disguised as something that appears safe. Then, once the computer security is compromised another malware application is employed to steal data, or to direct the computer to further spread the malware to other systems.
From BBC News.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
CUBSWILLWIN @ Apr 10th 2008 5:29PM
I'm suprised. I thought it would hit the 2 million mark
Ghen @ Apr 11th 2008 3:20PM
I don't believe anything a corporation has to say about what their product fixes.
As a computer technician for B2B service I've seen viruses go DOWN in the past few years as spyware increases. Without getting too technical, spyware is not a virus because it gets consent to install from the user. More than likely Symantec is including spyware 'trojans' as part of this 1 million even though a machine cannot be infected without a user present at the keyboard.