ICSA Labs 10th Annual Virus Prevalence Survey 2004.pdf - Craig ...

ICSA Labs Virus Prevalence Survey 2004Detailed FindingsThe Ever-Changing Picture of Computer Viruses and Their PrevalenceThe primary objective of this work each year is to ask the question, “How has computer virusprevalence changed?” The following detailed findings offer insights into several significantchanges in computer viruses. These include not only growth in prevalence, but also growthin the severity of payloads, consequences of infection, and changes in attack vectors. Thesedetailed findings also help us determine the risks posed by computer viruses.VIRUS ENCOUNTERS VERSUS VIRUS INFECTIONSAs reported above, virus encounters continue to rise. Figure 3 below gives us a picture of thesurvey period January 2004 through December 2004.Encounters per Month per 1000 PCs1251201211151161101051001019590Jan-JunJul-Oct2004 Survey PeriodsNov-DecFigure 3: Encounters per month, 2004TOP REPORTED VIRUSESCertain viruses are more likely to spread than others. Many factors determine whether avirus is likely to spread. Viruses such as mass mailers continue to grow in prevalencewhile others, such as simple macro viruses, are in decline. Still others, such as boot sectorviruses seem to have disappeared. Respondents were asked which viruses effected theirgroup. Due to the large number of known viruses and their many variants 3 ; a lack of3 Over 70,000 knownCopyright 2005 ICSA Labs, a division of Cybertrust, Inc. All Rights Reserved.This information may not be incorporated into any other work and may be reproduced only with the express written permission of Cybertrust, Inc.Page 7