2001 the 'Year of the Virus'
February 2001
The number of email viruses affecting British business has spiralled over the past year, according to an end of year report issued by MessageLabs, the email security company.By the end of the second week of December, the MessageLabs service had detected and stopped 1,628,750 email viruses in 2001. This total number compares to just 184,257 viruses in 2000.
The MessageLabs report also reveals the high number of viruses per email - the best measure of virus prevalence. The average for 2001 is one virus every 370 emails. This compares with one in 700 in 2000, and one in 1400 in 1999.
Mark Sunner, MessageLabs Chief Technical Officer, said:
"There is no doubt that 2001 is the year of the virus. A massive increase in numbers is one thing, but of more concern is the business impact that they are having. As virus writers get more sophisticated the trouble they are able to cause is much greater. If we thought the scale of LoveBug was bad last year, then 2001 was characterised more by the sheer range and ingenuity of viruses."
"Looking forward, this is a problem for business that simply isn't going to go away by itself. Firms must consider how they protect themselves not only against existing viruses but also against future outbreaks. Traditional, reactive virus scanners are no longer enough to combat this threat. We firmly believe that the answer is to stop the problem before it arrives, by scanning for viruses at the internet level."
"The solution is there - these days, being infected by a new mass mailing virus is very much an opt-in problem. Only businesses who want to be infected by such things need to be."
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