Anti-Virus Firms Scrambling to Keep Up

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031901
439.html?hpid=sec-tech

The sheer volume and complexity of computer viruses being released on the
Internet today has the anti-virus industry on the defensive, experts say,
underscoring the need for consumers to avoid relying on anti-virus software
alone to keep their home computers safe and secure. 

Approximately 5.5 million malicious software programs were unleashed on the
Web last year, according to AV Test Labs <http://www.av-test.org/> , a
German company that measures how quickly and accurately anti-virus products
detect the latest malicious software, also known as "malware." That volume,
AV said, forced anti-virus firms to analyze between 15,000 and 20,000 new
specimens each day -- more than four times the daily average they found in
2006, and at least 15 times as many the company recorded in 2005. In the
first two months of 2008 alone, AV Test found more than one million samples
of malware spreading online. 

"Back in 1990 we were seeing a handful of new viruses each week," said David
Perry, global director of education for Trend Micro
<http://us.trendmicro.com/us/home/> , an anti-virus company headquartered in
Japan. "Now, we're having to analyze between 2,000 and 3,000 new viruses per
hour." 

This glut of malware is the result of a long-running digital arms race
between security companies and criminals intent on stealing personal
financial data from vulnerable computers and using networks of commandeered
PCs for all manner of lucrative criminal enterprises -- from sending spam to
hosting scam Web sites. 

.

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