Virus levels drop as spyware soars

Email viruses have dropped to a new low, but spam and spyware are an increasingly dangerous problem

As organisations have improved at dealing with the threat of viruses, they have found that spam and spyware are continuing to clog up their systems, according to the latest figures from SoftScan.

Just 0.37 percent of all emails scanned by SoftScan in May contained a virus. The company said this was the lowest proportion it has ever recorded.

However, while releasing this good news, SoftScan warned that “this only demonstrates a change in tactics, not that viruses are on their way out”, noting that spam now accounted for 85 percent of all email the company had scanned in May.

This time last year the percentage of emails containing a virus was ten times greater, while in May 2004 it reached nine percent.

The drop in virus activity may lead to users becoming complacent about email security, the company warned.

Full article: ZDNet UK