How many ‘new’ computer worms, viruses, and Trojan horses have been launched since January 1, 2005?
Infinite. I’m not sure there is any organization that can qualify that answer. Every day, more and more viruses appear. It’s not your imagination. Sophos, a developer of antivirus software, estimates that some 30 pieces of malware come into existence per day. With more than 10.000 viruses per year. Most of them will never reach you, but some spread around the world like wildfire. Just remember, back in May 2000, when the Loveletter worm (VBS.LoveLetter.A) spread around the world thanks to the Internet and infected millions of computers. Known computer viruses grew by 28,327 in 2004 to bring the number of old and new viruses to 112,438, according to IBM. In 2002, only 4,551 new viruses were discovered. Of 147 bln e-mails scanned by IBM for customers in 2004, 6% contained a virus. During 2002, just 0.5% of e-mail scanned had viruses. The average amount of spam circulating on global networks was 75%. But during peak periods, spam accounted for as much as 95% of e-mail traffic. The fastest
