Various viruses, spyware, identity theft, and keylogging engulf the Internet toady. The Digital Economy Factbook sums up all the threats that the cyber community faces in today’s technology centric era. According to the 2006 edition of the book released by Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF), 18.3 percent of the world's Internet users are from the United States, while 11.1 percent are from China and 8 percent are from Japan.
Broadly, the threats covered in the book, released by the Washington based think-tank, can be divided into two categories:
Those whose perpetrators are intentionally harming the welfare of others for financial or political gain; examples include viruses, spyware, identity theft, and keylogging
Those whose perpetrators are merely overzealous and non-discriminating marketers; spam is the main example of this
"It is ironic that all of these threats to the digital economy use technologies that resulted from technological advances by the digital economy. Spam is a form of e-mail, piracy depends heavily on illegal downloading and CD replication technology, and viruses are usually spread through the Internet. Although they still pose challenges, there has been success in the past several years in reducing the harmful effects of these threats", Gifford wrote.
Viruses
A computer virus is a self-replicating computer program that inserts copies of itself into code or documents. Viruses are a type of malware, which can include worms and Trojan horses.
The number of Trojan-borne e-mail messages increased in 2005, as virus writers seem to have shifted from using mass-mailed viruses to targeted Trojans through botnets (a collection of software 'robots' that run automatically).
In the first quarter of 2006, 18.1 percent of US computers were zombies, compared with 44 percent in the second quarter of 2004.2 Zombies are PCs that have been infected by viruses.
Worldwide network security appliances and software revenue was USD 4.3 billion in 2005, an increase of 15 percent over the 2004 figure. Infonetics forecasts this figure will touch USD 5.7 billion in 2009.
Some viruses can spread between smartphones that are linked to computers, although no cell phone viruses have been developed.
The most harmful viruses also tend to be the ones that work the fastest. Commtouch Detection Center found that the average distribution time of low intensity attacks was 27 hours, but that massive attacks take as few as 5.5 hours to spread via millions of e-mails.
Spam
Although it has sometimes been regarded as a major threat to the digital economy, junk e-mail, or 'Spam', has become less of a problem than in the past due to improvements in e-mail filtering capabilities and an increased awareness among e-mail users. Whereas Spam was once a viable way for sellers to reach potential buyers, many of those sellers are turning towards more targeted techniques.
The average e-mail user received 3,253 pieces of Spam in 2005, but is expected to receive only 1,640 pieces of Spam in 2010.
In 2005, it is estimated that 68.6 percent of e-mail messages were Spam, compared with 72.3 percent in 2004.11 However, estimates of the percentage of e-mail that is Spam vary widely depending on the source.
At least 20 percent of the e-mail addresses on spammers’ lists are out-of-date, which has created a new problem: bounced e-mail, which is estimated to cost companies USD 5 billion per year in IT resources. Nine percent of e-mail volume is misdirected or ’bounced’ e-mail.
E-mail delivery rates have stabilized at around 88 percent and are expected to surpass 90 percent over the next few years.
JupiterResearch estimates that the cost of incorrectly blocked e-mail is expected to be USD107 million in 2006, but these figures are expected to fall to USD 92 million by 2010.
Spyware
Spyware is defined as software that is placed surreptitiously on a computer in order to monitor the user’s behavior and report that information back to a central source
In the first quarter of 2006, the total number of identified sites hosting spyware was 427,000.19 According to a Webroot survey, more than 50 percent of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) experienced a spyware attack during the first quarter of 2006.
According to a Pew survey, 43 percent of Internet users say they have had a spyware program on their home computer, but the actual number of users whose computers are affected is probably much higher.
Ninety-one percent of Internet users say they have made at least one change to their online behavior in order to avoid getting undesirable software like viruses and spyware on their computer.
In a Pew survey, 48 percent of the people who tried to alleviate spyware-related problems with their computer said the problem was fixed quickly and easily, 31 percent said it was fixed after substantial time and effort, and 20 percent said the problem was never solved.
Anti-spyware software that tracks cookies, which is used by about 32 percent of Internet users, is a threat to companies that use third-party cookies.
According to a Webroot survey, the US had the highest incidence of spyware detected by spyware scans in the first quarter of 2006, with 34 per scanned PC.
There was a significant increase in overall infection rates (spyware, Trojans, and adware) in the first quarter of 2006. Webroot had three possible explanations for this growth -- new spyware distribution methods, new research technologies, and increased utilisation of opportunities posed by adware industries.
Two-thirds of all e-mail sent in March was Spam, while only 20 percent of it was legitimate, the fact book says. Nine percent of all e-mail sent bounced, while three percent was virus e-mail and one percent was phishing e-mail. Nearly 44 percent of all Spam came from the United States, and another 13.6 percent came from China, the book says. More than 52.2 percent of Spam focused on pharmaceutical products, and 15.5 percent pitched 'enhancer' products.
