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Computer Viruses Broke 100,000 In 2004

Posted by timothy on from the research-purposes-of-course dept.

Sammy at Palm Addict writes "The count of known computer viruses broke the 100,000 barrier in 2004 and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50% according to news from the BBC. The BBC also reports that 'phishing attempts, in which conmen try to trick people into handing over confidential data, are recording growth rates of more than 30% with attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated.'"

4 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Easy enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    They broke 100,000 in 2003 as well.

  2. not suprising by spac3manspiff · · Score: 5, Informative

    The most common sentence i heard from relatives this holiday was,
    "Can you please fix my computer".
    "I accidently clicked something and my computer is slow".

  3. Re:Could we have a distinction here? by Xeo+024 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Linux vs Windows Viruses (from 2003 but still relevant).

    Some things (from the article) worth noting:

    To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just need to work on it, writes SecurityFocus columnist Scott Granneman.

    "There are about 60,000 viruses known for Windows, 40 or so for the Macintosh, about 5 for commercial Unix versions, and perhaps 40 for Linux. Most of the Windows viruses are not important, but many hundreds have caused widespread damage. Two or three of the Macintosh viruses were widespread enough to be of importance. None of the Unix or Linux viruses became widespread - most were confined to the laboratory."

    It says 60,000 viruses for Windows in 2003, which escalated to 100,000 in 2004. There haven't been that many major viruses released for Linux/Unix/Mac so let's add a modest 15 to each number listed in 2003.

    So, the list comes to:

    Windows: ~100,000
    Mac: ~55
    Unix: ~20
    Linux: ~55

    and that's being really generous to Windows. Also, keep in mind what it says above: "Most of the Windows viruses are not important, but many hundreds have caused widespread damage. Two or three of the Macintosh viruses were widespread enough to be of importance. None of the Unix or Linux viruses became widespread - most were confined to the laboratory."

  4. Scarier than the number of virii is this stat... by rah1420 · · Score: 2, Informative

    from TFA:

    On the positive side, Finnish security firm F-Secure said that 2004 was the best-ever year for the capture, arrest and sentencing of virus writers and criminally-minded hackers.

    In total, eight virus writers were arrested and some members of the so-called 29A virus writing group were sentenced.

    Eight? EIGHT??

    (deep sigh)

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.