Column: Malware — the mischief in your machines

Source: ExecDigital March 2007

Date :30/05/2007 17:35:34

Paul Bryan says external threats from viruses, worms, and Trojans are becoming more sophisticated, targeted and costly to your business.

By Paul Bryan

In a recent article, an information technology security executive stated that — in his opinion — the problem of worms and viruses was largely “solved,” and he suggested that financial fraud and identity theft were now the more important security threats.

He is right to bring the dangers of identity theft and fraud to the executive community’s attention, and I agree that these threats are real and growing. However, the problem of malware is still a huge issue for IT departments – and far from being solved. To claim we have solved this is vastly overstated. In fact, malware is becoming more sophisticated, targeted and costly.

Consider: In the first half of 2006 alone, Microsoft Corp. helped customers remove over 10 million pieces of malware from nearly 4 million unique computers. Of the infected computers, 15 percent were infected by viruses, 23 percent were infected by e-mail worms, 17 percent were infected by P2P worms, and 50 percent were infected by Trojans. These figures show that worms and viruses are alive and well – and continuing to infect millions of computers everywhere.

Threat

This is why leading security executives and IT professionals continue to put malware as one of their top IT priorities.

At a recent Microsoft CSO Council meeting, comprised of some of the nation’s leading chief information officers (CIOs) and chief security officers (CSOs), we asked them to rank seven security issues by order of priority to their organizations. Malware ranked number one, followed by identity management, reputation management, product security, intellectual property protection, configuration management, and application development.

IT professionals working in the trenches know this better than anyone. Malware — including viruses, worms, bots, and Trojan horses — has plagued IT departments for years, creating havoc on systems and networks and costing companies billions of dollars. The 2004 outbreak of the MyDoom virus alone is estimated to have cost businesses anywhere from $250 million to $10 billion…

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