Malware statistics:

  • Code Red infected every vulnerable computer on the Internet within 14 hours; Slammer did the same in 20 minutes. An IM exploit could spread to half a million computers in just 30 seconds (Symantec Security Response)

  • In 2001, one in 300 e-mails contained a virus; for 2004, that number is predicted to be one in 100 (MessageLabs)

  • Attacks increased tenfold in the past ten years, from 1,334 reported attacks in 1993 to 137,529 in 2003 (CERT Coordination Center)

  • 20-40 new or variant virus threats were reported daily to TrendMicro in 2003

  • The number of attacks between January and June, 2003 exceeded 70,000 -- double those of the previous year (Reuters)

  • Ninety-two out of 300 randomly selected companies suffered a major (more than 25 computers affected) virus attack in 2003 (Computer Virus Prevalence Report)

  • Companies in the above survey reported that 11% of their computers were infected in any given month (Computer Virus Prevalence Report)

  • Spyware is estimated to be present on about 90% of computers with a broadband connection (Scott Culp, Microsoft)

  • Spyware is responsible for about a third of all Windows application crashes (Scott Culp, Microsoft)

  • Viruses cost businesses around the world $55 billion in 2003, up from $13 billion in 2001 (TrendMicro)