Risk: Informational
Aladdin, an Israeli security company, has recently claimed that incidences of spyware have tripled between 2004 and 2005.
SC Magazine reported that Aladdin's Content Security Response Team found that the number of malicious threats rose from 1,083 in 2004 to 3,389 in 2005, representing an increase of more than 213%. It also found that Trojans increased from 1455 in 2004 to 3521 in 2005. Webroot counted 400,000 sites that were distributing spyware at the end of 2005, and claimed that Trojan infection rates increased by 5% in the first quarter of 2006.
Although phishers and scammers seem to target corporate rather than consumer email addresses, it is often consumers' PCs that are the most vulnerable to malware and viruses, as they are more likely to be unprotected. All those who use a PC, whether for corporate or home computing, are advised to stay up to date with the latest program patches and security issues.