Majority of firms suffer virus attacks: study

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona—Companies battling to protect their information systems from hackers expect to be even busier safeguarding their data in 2007, a survey reveals.

More than half—59%—of the 200 organizations in Europe, Asia and the United States that participated in the study released this week by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Patchlink Corp. said their networks were attacked by viruses in the past two years. And 67% said they expect 2007 to bring more "zero-day" events—those that happen when a hacker is the first to discover a vulnerability and immediately attacks.

The chief information officers, network administrators and other technology security experts at Patchwork client companies that participated in the study said malicious software/spyware was the concern that kept them from getting a good night's sleep. While 36% named that threat, 34% said zero-day vulnerabilities led to insomnia. Insider threats were named by 33%.

The survey showed that 44% plan to implement Microsoft's Vista operating system, with just over half the respondents saying they think Vista will be a more secure system than Windows XP.

The report is available at www.patchlink.com/yearendsurvey.