The Globe and Mail

Businesses are more vulnerable to e-mail viruses, while individuals are more likely to be hit by adware and spyware, a new report from the McAfee Anti-virus and Vulnerability Emergency Response Team says.

Mass mailers — viruses and worms that propagate by e-mail and are standalone programs — hit enterprises harder because e-mail is an important part of doing business, and because many enterprises forbid installation of the kind of programs that deliver adware, the report said.

Spyware and adware, however, account for as much as 60 per cent of the malware that infects home computers. Spam that is to install spyware has become an increasing issue among consumers.

Also included in this category are "phishing" scams, which seek to trick individuals into divulging their passwords, credit-card numbers and other sensitive data to identity thieves. McAfee's AVERT study also said that a general lack of consumer awareness will likely allow phishing schemes to increase throughout the remainder of 2004.

In the first half of this year, McAfee said, computer virus attacks rated "medium risk" or higher have dramatically increased, compared to all of last year. By the end of the first quarter of 2004 alone, McAfee AVERT had already seen more viruses reach a medium-risk assessment or higher than in all of 2003.

Most of the increase in viral activity can be traced to a "war" between the creators of two viruses, Bagle and Netsky. In the first six months of the year, Bagle and Netsky have been reported in 215 countries. Today, there are still three Bagle variants and three Netsky variants that are rated as medium threats by McAfee.

By the end of the year, the report predicts, another 17,000 to 18,000 new malware threats will have been added to McAfee's growing database of threats for 2004.

"Although we saw a steady decline in the rate of viruses produced from 2000 to 2003, down to a 5-per-cent year-over-year growth, we've seen a 20-per-cent increase of malware-related threats between 2003 and 2004," McAfee vice-president Vincent Gullotto said in a statement, "and [we] anticipate that these numbers will stay at the higher rate of growth for the immediate future."

McAfee listed the top 10 threats in the first half of 2004. They are:

McAfee ranks viruses according to the severity and number of samples it receives, and categorizes them as medium, medium-on-watch, high and high-outbreak. In the first half of 2004, McAfee analyzed 29 medium viruses, compared to 14 medium viruses in all of 2003; one medium-on-watch virus, compared to three medium-on-watch viruses in all of 2003; and one high-outbreak virus, compared to three high viruses in all of 2003.

The company found that just within the first half of 2004, 11 exploits targeting four Microsoft vulnerabilities were widely reported versus 15 exploits targeting seven Microsoft vulnerabilities in all of 2003.