Online world faces threat of an elusive, slow-moving foe

BY SOME ACCOUNTS the battle against viruses has already been won.

After all, massive, global-scale attacks such as the 'Love Bug' that struck millions of computers worldwide and inflicted billions of dollars worth of damage at the turn of the millennium are now increasingly rare. But experts say this is hardly the time for enterprises to let down their defences.

IT research firm Gartner continues to rank viruses among the top five dangers facing companies today, as they have moved into the realm of a 'permanent annoyance'.

Any victory against an individual virus or piece of malicious software is fleeting, as more will spring up to take its place, and businesses must strive to contain rather than defeat the problem. The threat, it seems, is as real as ever, but its nature is changing.

'The current threat landscape is populated by lower-profile, more targeted attacks - attacks that propagate at a slower rate in order to avoid detection and thereby increase the likelihood of successful compromise,' said Michael Chue, Hong Kong managing director for security vendor Symantec.

Allan Bell, Asia-Pacific marketing director at anti-virus software maker McAfee, said: 'As virus outbreaks are less common, users would be forgiven for thinking that they are less likely to be infected by a virus.