Half of UK firms hit by viruses last year

Half of UK businesses were hit by viruses in the past year, according to the initial findings of the Department of Trade and Industry's biennial Information Security survey.

This figure rises to 68 per cent among larger companies, which suffered most damage from the Blaster worm designed to launch a denial of service attack against Microsoft.

Chris Potter, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is conducting the survey for the DTI, explained that Blaster had proved costly and difficult to eradicate in large networks.

The worm was less effective within smaller firms, but attachment-based viruses like Bugbear had hit harder in this group. One reason for this was the lower level of staff training in safe computing.

One in seven firms have failed to take cyber threats seriously, according to the survey.

Seven per cent of respondents still have no antivirus software in place, while a further seven per cent only update their antivirus software annually or not at all.

"While people do have antivirus software they don't always keep it up to date," said Potter.

"On the plus side 59 per cent now update automatically and that's a significant advance on two years ago."

The lack of updates and the increasing sophistication of virus writers were the main reasons for the increased number of infections.

"The newest viruses are like Swiss Army knives: if they can't get in one way they will try another," warned Potter.

See also:

A third of UK corporates open to hackers

Firms ignoring basic flaws as they fight high-risk vulnerabilities, warns research  13 May 2004

Bugwatch: Worm wars

Netsky and Bagle: the saga continues  13 May 2004

Sasser F blames it on Bill

Latest variant suggests availability of virus source code, say experts  11 May 2004

Sasser strikes back despite arrest

German law enforcement picks up alleged virus writer, but new variant emerges  10 May 2004

Computer attacks on UK businesses double

DTI security breaches survey finds firms more vulnerable now than in 2002  27 Apr 2004

'Burnt out' IT staff losing virus battle

Failure to centralise antivirus software management exhausts IT workers  26 Apr 2004

Wi-Fi security still poor

Wireless network protection neglected by more than half of UK businesses  14 Apr 2004

One in three firms suffer hacking attempts

Survey reveals poor systems security among UK's biggest businesses  23 Mar 2004

Network Box of tricks to target viruses

Supplier seeks resellers for remotely managed hardware aimed at SMEs  15 Mar 2004

Automated kits fuel virus epidemic

Virus creation kits blamed as new variants Netsky.D and Bagel.G appear  01 Mar 2004

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