Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Over 34.4 million cases of PC virus hits in Q1

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- There were 34.43 million computer virus attacks reported in the first quarter in Taiwan, according to a report released yesterday by the local chapter of a global network for computer surveillance and attack prevention.

The first quarter number reached 47 percent of total number of cases last year and represented a 297 percent rise compared to the same period a year earlier.

The number was also 9.79 percent higher than in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the report conducted by the Global Anti-virus Research and Support Center of TrendLabs — a branch of Trend Micro's global network committed to computer virus threat surveillance.

“The Asian region has been fallen particularly vulnerable to self-executing malicious software due to the popularity of the use of USB flash drives,” said Samson Tai, a TrendLabs senior technical adviser.

Of the 10 most common computer viruses that occurred in the first quarter, the top two were USB-related, he added.

Tai advised computer users to switch off the self-executing directive by pressing the “Shift” key when connecting USB flash drives to computers to avoid activating virus-affected files.

Users can also disable auto-play functions by right clicking the USB drives and selecting “Take no action” in the “Actions” panel under the “Properties” dialogue box, he added.

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