Viruses and Criminals
gmacfarl
According to a report from anti-virus software firm Symantec Corp,
computer users were five times more likely to have confidential data
stolen from their PCs during the second half of 2003 compared to the
first half. Virus creators are making these viruses with a profit
motive. This can be seen in the fact that more Internet viruses are
being designed to steal financial data, user names and passwords.
Therefore the sectors that were being hit the hardest are the financial,
health care and energy sectors. Worms are the most common forms of
attack and they are becoming increasingly intelligent. Email is a major
way these worms are spread. They trick users into opening them, and they
open back doors on computer systems that make it possible for other
viruses to get in. Symantec Corp said these attacks are taking a toll.
The number of companies detecting "severe" attacks are 45%. Of the
2,636 vulnerabilities that were tracked by Symantec, 80% allowed
outsiders to gain complete control of a system via the Internet, making
it possible to steal data, crash operating systems, turning PCs into
spam machines, or turning them into drones for coordinated denial of
service attacks that bog down the Internet. A potential long-term plan
is to build a "shield" strategy that would make it easier for computers
to automatically detect and block viruses. On average, the gap between
when a hole in a system is discovered and when a virus is deployed to
attack it, is about 25 days. Experts fear the zero day, when discovery
and attack occur in tandem before a defense is available. If this
occurs, the result would be disastrous for everybody that uses the
Internet.