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.