Your IT folks have probably been doing a pretty good job of keeping your organization safe from high tech invaders, but that doesn’t mean you’re home free.

Anticipate a fresh new wave of problems in coming months as the total number of viruses is set to reach one million by year’s end, according to security experts. That could cost your company plenty if one of these viruses hits employees or your firm’s Web site.

Malware writers have been forced to create new types of viruses and exploits more regularly as businesses and individuals improve security practices, the experts said.
Sophos CTO Paul Ducklin said about 25% of unique malware has been created in the last six months of its 20-year history.
The big threat: drive-by-downloads. Hackers redirect mass amounts of traffic by inserting malicious iframes into legitimate Web sites — one of them could be your company’s. The hacks are usually invisible to visitors and don’t often draw attention from security personnel because they only require a single line of code to be manipulated.
It’s essential to patch the exploit because hackers use compromised sites for follow-up attacks.
F-Secure Asia Pacific is logging about 25,000 malware samples each day, the highest on record.

Now’s the time to check with your IT folks to make sure they’re protecting your firm’s Web sites and monitoring traffic in case a sly piece of code’s been inserted somewhere. With a million viruses out there, chances are good you’ll catch one or two.

Tags: , drive-by downloads, exploits, hackers, malware, security, viruses