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Excluding cookies, which are not such a serious problem as key logger programs or Trojan horses, more than 55% of corporate PCs contained unwanted programs. There were an average of 7.2 non-cookie infections per PC.
System monitors (key logger programs) were found in 7% cent of consumer and enterprise PCs scanned by Webroot's software. In Q4 2004 there were 19%. Trojan horse programs were found on 19% of consumer PCs and 7% of enterprise PCs,
same figures as in Q4 2004.
This year's State of Spyware Report data come from Webroot's SpyAudit results and from online research made by Phileas, Webroot's automated spyware research system. Phileas has identified 4,294 sites (with almost 90,000 pages) containing some form of spyware.
This report for first quarter of 2005 entirely confirmed concept that had become as clear as day in 2004 -- from being not much more than a nuisance for PC users, spyware turned into one of major threats to information security.
Since Internet has become a part of daily life and business, rapid growth of such kinds of cybercrime as identity theft and phishing endanger whole society. Some types of spyware, namely software capable of stealing passwords, SSNs and other valuable information (keyloggers and keylogger-containing malware), certainly facilitate these crimes.
The complete report for Q1 2005 is available at http://www.webroot.com/stateofspyware (Registration is required) In future an updated version of Webroot's State of Spyware Report will be released at end of each quarter. Keep an eye on news!
Alexandra Gamanenko currently works at Raytown Corporation, LLC -- an independent software developing company. The company's R&D department created an innovative technology, which disables the very processes of information capturing -- keylogging, screenshoting, etc. Learn more -- visit the company's website www.anti-keyloggers.com
