I couldn’t help but chuckle a little when reading this article. Computer Electronics recently did a study and discovered that the financial damages in malware have decreased… to only $13.3 billion in 2006. It is obviously great news to see that malware is declining, it still blows my mind that the financial damages are still in the double-figure billion digits. One can just hope that with the continuous advance in technology, the good guys will continue to develop efficient and effective anti-malware solutions to get these numbers down even more.

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A new study from Computer Economics finds that direct cost damages from malware attacks have been declining worldwide over the past two years. In 2006, damages fell to $13.3 billion, from $14.2 billion in 2005, and from $17.5 billion in 2004.

“Anti-malware technology is becoming more widely deployed and is fairly effective in defending against many types of malware threats,” said Mark McManus, Vice President of Research at Computer Economics. “The antivirus vendors do a pretty good job of responding quickly to new variants, so new attacks don’t have the time they used to have to develop into massive new worldwide infections.”

The study also found that a shift in the motivation of malware authors has much to do with the decline in direct cost damages. “Malware authors today prefer to make money from malware,” said Frank Scavo, President of Computer Economics. “Rather than wreak havoc, cyber-criminals are using infected machines to serve as spam proxies, perpetuate click-fraud, or sniff passwords, for example.”[more]

Tags: Malware