Today's Computers Face More Attacks Than Ever - CNET
CNET, By Seth Rosenblatt
Nestled into a storefront at the top of San Francisco's tree-lined Valencia Street is one of the city's top defenses in the war against malicious-software infections: a computer repair shop owned by Del Jaljaa.
People bring their infected computers to Jaljaa's San Francisco Computer Repair store 5 to 10 times a day, desperate for help restoring their devices to working order. In the past few years malware has grown to be about a third of his business. "It's our bread and butter," he said.
Getting computer infections more often? You're not alone.
Infections from malicious software -- harmful code that's also known as malware and that includes things like computer viruses and worms -- are keeping repair specialists like Jaljaa busy, thanks in part to an exponential rise in the types of malware hitting PCs. Malware detections by AV-Test, a company that tests the effectiveness of antivirus software, spiked in 2014 to more than 143 million, up 72 percent from last year, according to a report released Thursday.
To put that in perspective: there was more malware found over the last 2 years than in the previous 10 years combined.
Other malware watchers, such as security-software makers Malwarebytes and Kaspersky, have noticed similar trends.
Kaspersky saw four times more mobile malware attacks in 2014 than the year before, said Patrick Nielsen, a researcher with the company. Read more.
