What, IT Worry?

02/15/2005

Despite numerous problems stemming from attacks by viruses, worms and other malicious code, over 45% of enterprise IT departments surveyed by Amplitude Research say they are "somewhat satisfied" with their current anti-virus solution, and over 18% say they are "very satisfied."

Almost two-thirds of respondents say their network was attacked in 2004 by traditional viruses or by worms. Additionally, 58% say they were attacked by trojans and 45% report attacks by backdoor viruses. Over one-third of viruses or worms were introduced to the network internally.

When an attack occurs, 33% report that having to clean up desktop and server computers is the largest problem, while 26% single out containing the virus/worm outbreak, over 24% find user complaints due to slow traffic to be the biggest dilemma and just over 14% find disconnecting the Web service, Internet connection or other network service the worst predicament. About 55% of respondents have had to disconnect their network as the result of a virus or worm attack.

Almost 30% of respondents say that they had between one and three virus or worm outbreaks in 2004, and another 27% report experiencing between four and six outbreaks last year. Almost 14% indicate that they had more than 10 such outbreaks in 2004.

Nevertheless, less than 17% of respondents report being "very dissatisfied" or "somewhat dissatisfied" with their anti-virus solution, while over 64% say they are "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the anti-virus tools they have in place.

A WatchGuard Technologies study released in January found that US IT professionals actually feel that their networks are least protected against spyware, despite the number problems they encounter from viruses and worms. This may have to do with the relative newness of spyware compared to viruses — many IT departments may have had anti-virus software in place for years, and are generally knowledgeable about and used to combating virus or worm threats. However, they may not have an effective spyware solution in place, and may have limited experience in dealing with them.

Source of Article: eMarketer

Date of Article: February 15, 2005