subaru 365

Top 2004 Threats

Products | Virus Information | Store | Support | Downloads

Medium Risk Viruses Up 130% in 2004

Computer virus attacks reaching a Medium Risk assessment or higher dramatically increased to 46 in 2004, compared with only 20 in 2003.

"The rise in viruses, worms, Phishing, adware and vulnerability exploitation surpassed what was noted last year," said McAfee Vice President Vincent Gullotto. "Although we saw a steady 5% (year over year) decrease in the rate of virus production from 2000 to 2003, we saw an increase in 2004 that can be partly attributed to Bagle and Netsky virus authors feuding, as well as a general lack of awareness in regards to adware and other such programs."

Within the first half of 2004, 50 new computer viruses (of varying risk assessments) were discovered daily.

Phishing Threats Increasing, Too

As reported by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry association McAfee recently joined to help fight identity theft and fraud, 176 unique new phishing attacks—spam attempts to fool users into divulging financial information on phony websites—were reported in January 2004. By June 2004, that number skyrocketed to a 1,422.

Expect More Spyware & Adware in 2005

McAfee expects adware and unwanted content, transmitted via email and the Web, to increase in 2005, with threats becoming increasingly complex as they combine spam and Phishing. Worse, spyware-installing spam will also threaten users.

Find Out More

Read McAfee's latest news release here.

McAfee Recommends

For multi-layered protection against viruses, hackers, spam, spyware and identity thieves, upgrade to McAfee Internet Security Suite.

The Top 10 Threats of 2004

Adware-180
Adware-Gator
Exploit-ByteVerify
Exploit-MhtRedir
JS/Noclose
W32/Bagle
W32/Mydoom
W32/Netsky
W32/Sasser
W32/Sdbot (family including sdbot, gaobot, polybot, spybot)

Notes: Listed alphabetically. Includes both enterprise and consumer threats defined as:
1) spyware/adware threats,
2) email-borne virus threats or
3) malware threats delivered by spam.


Install the Latest Protection

Current Subscribers 1. Connect to the Internet. 2. Right-click the icon in your system tray. 3. Click Updates. Note: We recommend setting your service to Automatic Update. VirusScan 8.x Owners Renew your current DAT subscription. VirusScan 7.x or prior Retail Product Owners Visit our Upgrade Center to order new VirusScan 2005. New Users Download new McAfee VirusScan now for year-round PC protection from the latest viruses and worms. Or try it free for 15 days. McAfee Special Is spyware on your PC? McAfee AntiSpyware helps keep you safe from identity theft. Only $29.99 after $10 rebate.