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

ICSA Labs Virus Prevalence Survey 2004Where Do They Come From?We asked respondents to identify the means of infection for their most recent virus incident,disaster, or encounter. Again, responses total more than 100 percent because participantswere allowed to select more than one means of infection. Table 5 compares responses fromthe 2004 survey to all previous surveys.Virus Source 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004Email Attachment 9% 26% 32% 56% 87% 83% 86% 88% 92%Internet Downloads 10% 16% 9% 11% 1% 13% 11% 16% 8%Web Browsing 0% 5% 2% 3% 0% 7% 4% 4% 2%Other Vector 0% 5% 1% 1% 1% 2% 3% 11% 12%Software Distribution 0% 3% 3% 0% 1% 2% 0% 0% 0%Diskette 71% 84% 64% 27% 7% 1% 0% 0% 0%Table 5: Sources of infection, 1996-2004Respondents reported that the email vector continues to be the primary point of virus encounter.In addition, for the first time since doing this survey, there were NO instances of boot sectorviruses reported. Figure 10 below gives a more meaningful picture of the points of virusencounter.100%90%80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Email Attachment Internet Downloads W eb BrowsingOther VectorDisketteFigure 10: Virus encounter vectorsCopyright 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 15