A recent survey from the Department of Trade and Industry has suggested that viruses are the single biggest security threat for UK businesses. Despite the number of business PCs falling victim to viruses falling by almost one third since 2004, malicious software can cause serious downtime of up to 50 days in extreme cases.
Systems such as e-mail can become inaccessible, resulting in major financial loss. Also mentioned was the rate at which spyware was infecting machines, with 25% of users surveyed stating that they have no spyware protection
at all.
The report suggests that the lower infection rate is due to companies scanning e-mails for viruses before they reach the intended recipient, reducing the risk of a computer novice opening an infected attachment. The full results of the survey will be released at the InfoSecurity Europe show to help at Olympia in London from 25-27 April.