90% of computers infected with spyware ?!

Webroot Software ( www.webroot.com ), an antispyware software company has just announced their research, whereby the level of spyware infection is at its highest level ever.

In the second quarter of this year, Webroot researchers found 89% of PC users were infected by 30 types of spyware, a significant increase compared to the first quarter.

Reports also show that spyware has found a "promised land" to flourish, a virtual community on sites like MySpace. Spammers have also recognized the 'great benefit' of 'promoting' spyware to spam, while hackers 'flood' the entire internet with a series of 'donated' spyware.

So far, Webroot has listed 527,136 dangerous websites in the first quarter of this year only 427,000 websites.

Dangerous software is getting more and more sophisticated, easily bypassing free prevention programs. Rootkits, Trojans, Keylogger, . are all harder to detect.

Webroot said that in the second quarter alone, the percentage of infected computers increased by 31%. They also reported the discovery of more than 1 million cases of Zlob and Trojan. Earlier, the fourth quarter of 2005 increased the rate to 24% and the first quarter of 2006 to 29%.

Not only personal computer users are infected with spyware. There are more than 40 spyware-related security incidents at companies recorded in the second quarter of this year. While the analysis shows that 70% of companies use anti-spyware software, the infection rate indicates that this solution is not effective enough.

In Europe, the UK has the highest infection rate with an average of 30.5 Spyware per PC. The world average is currently 24.5.

HOANG MINH