Virus costs could hit record high

The global economic impact of virus attacks has almost hit the $11bn mark already.

According to research from analysts Computer Economics, the Code Red epidemic itself was responsible for a hefty $2.6bn in economic damage.

Computer Economics said the figures showed that damaging virus attacks were on the rise.

Up until the end of August this year, virus attacks have cost $10.7bn. These figures are up from last year, which reached $17.1bn overall.

In 1999 the total cost was only $12.1bn.

Most of the cost is comprised of the effort necessary to clean viruses from networks, servers, and client systems, restore lost or damaged files, and the lost productivity of workers caused by system outages and downtime.

The Code Red virus, over the July and August 2001 period, caused over 1,000,000 infections.

The other big virus of this year, SirCam, is estimated to have done about $1.035bn in total economic damage, with around 2,300,000 infections.

In comparison, last year's Love Bug virus, which is said to have spawned more than 50 variants and hit over 40 million machines, has been labelled the most expensive virus ever, racking up more than $8.7bn in damage.

The Melissa virus, also released last year, was estimated to have cost $1.2bn.

Computer Economics predicts that if we can make it to the end of the year without another mass virus epidemic, total financial damage this year may just come in under figures filed for 2000.

Fingers crossed.

See also:

Magistr variant poses global risk

Malicious code on the rampage again  04 Sep 2001

FBI checks out Code Red suspects

Warnings of second Code Red variant  31 Aug 2001

Code Red wriggles into version two

New variant of Code Red worm is more dangerous than its parent.  06 Aug 2001

Code Red: internet on red alert

In the aftermath of the Code Red outbreak, experts suggested that the hysteria surrounding the worm may have been at least partly responsible for its failure to bring the internet to its knees. Although some reports were labelled as scaremongering, they may have prompted administrators to harden their servers against attack and ultimately stemmed the spread of the worm. But now a second variant of Code Red has appeared, it remains to be seen if the large number of still unpatched servers out there will help the worm spread further yet.  30 Jul 2001

The Love Bug strikes

PCs across the globe were hit by a new virus last month as the so-called Love Bug emailed itself to millions of internet users.  20 Jul 2000

Worse to come after Love Bug.

A group of developers has dismissed the Love Bug attack as crude and unsophisticated and warned that far worse virus outbreaks can be expected.Samhain, a loosely knit group of researchers, discovered last year that it was possible to create a far more potent virus than either Melissa or the Love Bug.  01 Jan 1999

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!