Internet threats double in two years

Hackers and malicious code authors are releasing threats faster than ever before

The number of internet threats has doubled in the past two years, according to a report from security company McAfee.

McAfee has officially released protection for malicious threat number 200,000 in its database, which has doubled since the 100,000 threshold was passed in 2004. 

"It is remarkable to note that it took 18 years for our database to reach 100,000 malicious threats, and just under two years to double to 200,000," said Stuart McClure, senior vice president for global research and threats at McAfee.

"Although security awareness continues to improve, hackers and malicious code authors are releasing threats faster than ever before, with approximately 200 per cent more malicious threats per day than two years ago."

While botnets are still the leading cause of this dramatic growth, exploits and downloaders are a close second.

Email threats, which made up a large percentage of the total in 2004, saw significantly smaller growth over the past two years when compared to other categories of malware.

In 2004, McAfee added 27,340 new threats to its database, but in 2005 that number more than doubled to 56,880 new threats.

Since 1 January this year, McAfee has added approximately 32,000 new threats to its database and is on track to exceed 60,000 new threats by the end of this year.

Given current trends, McAfee expects the 400,000th threat to be identified in less than two years.