Net Security Still Grim

[Steve]

It is if Symantec are to be believed, though The Inquirer astutely point out Symantec are set to make money from us trying to protect ourselves from Internet nasties.

In the last six months of 2004, malicious code created with aim of exposing confidential information from wired PCs represented 54 percent of the top 50 malicious code samples received by the company, the report states. This represents an increase of 44 percent over the first six months of the year.

The number of phishing attacks detected is also on the rise. By the end of December 2004, Symantec said its antifraud filters were blocking an average of 33 million phishing attempts per week, up from an average of nine million per week in July 2004 - an increase of over 366 percent.

[The story]