Spyware and trojan horses are spreading exponentially, not just one here and there. EarthLink claims spyware is down in April from March, but 27 pieces of spyware per machine (on average) is still an epidemic by any means.
Nearly one in three computers scanned by EarthLink and Webroot in their second monthly SpyAudit were found infected with a Trojan horse or system monitor planted by spyware, the two companies said. Internet service provider EarthLink and Webroot, a message security software maker, scanned over 420,000 PCs during April, and found nearly 134,000 Trojans or systems monitors.
So far this year, the SpyAudit has detected over 500,000 Trojans and system monitors out of the roughly 1.5 million machines scanned. The revised numbers also showed a slight decrease in the average number of pieces of spyware per system from March to April. Scans done in April detected 26.9 spyware programs or components per machine, while March"s scans found 29.9 on average. The year-to-date average is 27.5 pieces per system.