Guess what? Attacks on Windows-based computers are increasing

My, my. Here’s John Markoff in the NYT:”A survey of Internet vulnerabilities to be released Monday shows a sharp jump in attacks on Windows-based personal computers during the first six months of 2004, along with a marked increase in commercially motivated threats.

The Internet Security Threat Report says that from Jan. 1 to June 30 there were at least 1,237 newly discovered software vulnerabilities, or flaws that could compromise security. That translates into an average of 48 new vulnerabilities a week.”

The survey warns about a significant increase in the number of robot, networks — i.e. arrays of personal computers that have been compromised to inject large volumes of viruses, worms, spyware or spam into the Internet. Over the first six months, the number of monitored bot networks rose to more than 30,000, from fewer than 2,000.

This represents the expansion of a black market economy in which creators of bot networks sell access to them to commercial spammers and others who wish to send information anonymously. Or, to put it another way, malware writing has moved from a hobby to a serious business — a point we made in our online course on the subject.