By Steve Ranger, 26 September 2007 10:35
NEWS
Whether through better security protection or hackers turning their attention to more lucrative exploits the threat of the PC virus appears to be receding.
Lovebugs, Storm Worms and Bagels aren't bothering silicon.com readers anymore - the majority of respondents to our latest survey haven't suffered a virus attack for years.
When asked when their PC last got a virus, a lucky third of readers said never, while almost half (48 per cent) said they last got a virus between one and five years ago.
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Just seven per cent of the 484 readers who took the poll had been hit with a virus in the last year, six per cent in the last six months and an unlucky seven per cent in the last month.
This is despite recent research from Symantec, which said it had received 212,101 reports of new malicious code threats during the first six months of 2007, a 185 per cent increase on the previous six months. The security company has also warned that cyber crime is becoming an increasingly professional business with malware toolkits for sale on the internet.
Comments
There are 13 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
the readers of silicon.com tend to be the more IT literate end of the user spectrum
we know about virii and we know how to deal with them
the problem tends to lie with home users, many of whom do not have an antivirus or antispyware solution or if they do it's not functioning because they forgot to pay the subscription, or they have several all running at the same time then lose patience with the speed of their machine and disable them all
they don't know what a firewall is or does but they've heard it's a good idea to have one
I spend a lot of time with my company sorting home users problems out and educating them
one of my home user customers was about to remove MS Outlook as it crashed every time he started it, he didn't have a virus, his brand name virus scanner had run out of it's subscription and simply turned itself off after one notification which the user had forgotten about, when outlook tried to load the antivirus dll it failed and crashed outlook
we removed the existing virus scanner and put a free copy of AVG on he's never had a problem since
so I'm not surprised silicon.com readers haven't had many problems
2. anonymous
Only thing this survey shows is how good you are in highlighting the dangers of opeining up unknown email attachments or vistiting suspect internet links. If the survey was taken using the general public on the street you will probably get a totally different set of results.
3. Jeremy Wickins
To a greater or lesser extent I agree with Karen Challinor. The readers of silicon.com are pros or good amateurs, and I was fully expecting there to be no-one with a virus for years. It is actually more surprising that anyone has!
There is now sufficient free or cheap anti-intrusion software (anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewalls), and safer browsers than IE, that it can only be a lack of education that allows malware to propagate. No computer I set up connect to the internet without AVG free, Zone Alarm Free, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D. and Firefox set as the default browser, all fully installed and set to automatically update where possible. However, I then explain very clearly why they are there, what they do, and why they should never be turned off without talking to someone knowledgeable first. Okay, it tends to increase the amount of free tech support I give, but at least I'm reasonably confident that nothing I set up is contributing to botnets or any of the other nasties!
4. Patrick Archibald
The last case of natural polio infection in the UK was in 1982. Does that mean the threat is over and you don't need to get your kids vaccinated? If we stop worrying about (and therefore protecting ourselves from) viruses, then that's what the malware writers will turn their attention back to.
5. John H Woods
There's more to malware than just viruses, and there's more to the user community than just silicon readers. I agree with the Cloud Starer: generalizing about the world malware threat by asking silicon.com readers when they last had a virus is like trying to get a handle on Labour's electoral chances with a straw poll at an Eton parents' evening.
Two weeks ago, silicon reported that Storm now accounts for between 1 and 5 million PCs being enslaved into botnets - maybe a single net. Now that's worrying: even if _my_ computer is safe, the encryption we rely on may not be - there may be a supercomputer-powered grid trying to crack it.
6. anonymous
I actually disagree to what Ms Challinor says. I'm a home user and I know quite a lot about viruses and what they are able to do. I have from the start had Antivirus software on my computer and it is a great improvement.
In the early days, I had to learn the hard way as I received an email which had a virus attached to it and my antivirus flagged it and with the email coming from Microsoft (or as it appeared, I later found out that there was an email going around that took the look of Microsoft) and it totally wiped my computer. Since then, I trusted nothing. I got McAfee Internet Suite onto my computer and I have used that until now and will continue to do so.
I always make sure that I'm protected to the teeth and I trust nothing.
7. Tony Harbon
You have to take into account that today's malware doesn't want to be noticed. It wants (for example) to sit on your PC waiting for you to connect to a banking site and then divert your web browser to a phishing server when you do your online banking. Security software is far better at detecting malicious code than a person who may indeed notice that their PC is running a little slower than when they first received it but doesn't attribute this to malware.
8. Philip Thomas
I do have anti-virus, firewall etc and keep it up to date which (fingers crossed here) is why I don't seem to get hit with viruses.
Unfortunately they have been replaced with the "I am Director of a Nigerian bank and have £14 million etc.." type of PISH to the more plausible "Please confirm your on-line banking details as there has been a problem with your access." to the latest offering me £2,000 a week income as collector of money for E-bay from which I take 10% as my commission but to start please tell us your full details probably including inside leg measurement.
One day someone like McAfee will a service similar to Virus Checking and check all incoming emails for PIHS content against a registoer of regular pishes and we will be able to block these at source. It will take a lot to get through my defences, but the occasional home user who is not street-wise will get hit and we somehow have to stop it, but how?
9. Bob Tarzey
You should take into account that readers of silicon.com, and therefore the repondents to your survey, are likely to be more savvy about technology and more aware of threats and how to avaoid them than the wider popultation of computer users.
10. jay
Famous last words mate, besides the last comment is correct, end of viruses for smart people.
11. Tony Larks
Sure, the last real computer virus outbreak was in 1999 with 'Melissa'. This was the last virus attached to a host program while all following outbreaks, such as the ILOVEYOU and Sasser outbreaks, were caused by worms.
While it may be tempting to think your PC is safe and that malware is a thing of the past, think again. Malicious attacks have evolved beyond previous attacks from virus writers who wanted to show off their skills and get caught for self publicity.
The growing complexity of the internet in our daily lives from social networking to web based applications, has brought with it the proliferation of many Web-based threats generated by criminals who spend their time trying to exploit people through their private information.
As we spend more of our lives online both at home and at work, there is a definite need to develop good practice in order to protect personal data and identity from theft.
12. anonymous
I just think the survey shows how out of touch most silicon readers (well at least those that bother to fill in surveys at least) are with the networking. Ask any network administrator and they will tell you virus, malware, malicious cookies etc are alive - its just we have got bettew at stopping them. Most come in attached to spam. The suprise is the week the log shows no nasties stopped by the security. Last week 58 - the avearge is around 10 - and i just have a small network
13. John Robinson
You asked a dumb question, so of course your results are flaky. You used the highly technical term "got a virus". If I say I've got a cold, everybody knows I've been infected by it.
My PC has never been infected by a virus/worm/trojan, which you say is "lucky". Rubbish! I use proper antivirus (etc), updated hourly, so viruses arriving on my PC are detected and cannot cause infection.
Have I been "unlucky" to be "hit by a virus"? No. Is the threat over? No.