Nine in 10 PCs infected with spyware

Spyware infection rates have risen to their highest level since 2004

Nine out of ten PCs are infected with spyware, new research has found.

After a fall in 2005, spyware infection rates have risen again to their highest level since 2004, thought to be spyware's heyday, according to a recent report by anti-spyware company Webroot Software. 

"Less than a year ago, many so-called internet security experts began claiming that spyware was on the decline and that infection rates would soon drop to the point of extinction," said C David Moll, chief executive at Webroot.

"While the infection rates at that time seemingly supported this theory, the data we have culled during the past six months unequivocally shows that spyware is anything but extinct."

During the second quarter of 2006, Webroot researchers found that 89 per cent of consumer PCs were infected with an average of 30 pieces of spyware, a slight increase from the first quarter of 2006.

New online channels, more sophisticated spyware technology and consumer reliance on free anti-spyware applications are all contributing factors.

Spyware has found fertile ground to propagate among new victims in social networking sites such as MySpace, according to the report.

Meanwhile spammers recognise the extra profitability of adding spyware to their email scams, and criminals are flooding the internet with an increased number of spyware websites to ensnare new victims. 

Webroot has identified 527,136 malicious websites to date. This number marks a substantial increase during the past quarter as the number of identified websites at the close of the first quarter of 2006 was 427,000.

With many PC users still relying on free anti-spyware, new generations of malware are able to avoid detection using more advanced technology, such as rootkits, Trojan downloaders, key-loggers and driver-level installers.

During the past quarter alone, Webroot saw the infection rate of Trojans among consumer PCs rise to 31 per cent, up from 29 per cent during the first quarter of 2006 and 24 per cent during the last quarter of 2005.

Webroot also found more than one million traces of the most prevalent Trojan, Zlob, during the second quarter.

"Spyware is a financially motivated threat and as long as there is a dollar to be had, cyber-criminals will do everything possible to steal it," said Moll.

"It is imperative that PC users deploy a proven anti-spyware solution that offers proactive protection against the most advanced spyware technologies."

Consumers are not alone in suffering from an increase in spyware infections. More than 40 spyware-related security breaches were reported by companies during the past quarter.

Despite analyst estimates that 70 per cent of corporations use anti-spyware applications, infection rates among organisations suggest that these solutions may be inadequate.

The UK has the worst infection rate in Europe with an average of 30.5 instances of spyware per PC. The global average is 24.5.