An anti-malware developer says the spyware problem worsened significantly in 2005, as the number of programs tripled, became more sophisticated, and attached themselves to more computers in the U.S.
than any other country. According to Boulder, Colo.-based Webroot, there were 400,000 spyware distributing sites and a global count of 120,000 different traces, or components, at the end of 2005. The
latter number had tripled from the beginning of last year, the firm said, due to the increasing sophistication of spyware makers. The percentage of infected business machines also tripled, climbing
from 2 to 6 percent. However, consumer machines remained the most at risk, because a fewer number are protected by anti-spyware software. The firm said an astonishing 81 percent of consumer machines
harbored at least one piece of spyware, with the average machine containing 25 traces. In spite of the gloomy numbers, Webroot executives expect spyware to become more of an annoyance in 2006, like
spam is now, rather than a security threat.
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