US consumers losing billions in cyber attacks.

A report out in the US has put a figure on losses suffered by Americans due to computer malware and cybercrime, and this figure is staggering. According to Consumer Reports' State of the Internet survey, last year Americans lost $7.9 billion because of computer viruses, spyware and online scams. The majority of those losses were attributed to viruses, as total damage from them amounted to $5.2 billion. This was mainly due to costs associated with cleaning up computers or replacing machines that were irrecoverably affected. The past year has seen the appearance of several dangerous exploits of major flaws in Microsoft Windows and Office, including the now infamous WMF vulnerability. Overall, a quarter of those surveyed suffered from a computer virus infection last year, with incidents being very costly for users, who had to spend an average of $109 remedying problems. Spyware, which is also a type of malware, also represented a major problem for American computer users, who had to shell out $2.6 billion to cover the costs of infecting their machines with it. Incidence levels of spyware, however, were relatively small, with 1 user in 8 reporting a major problem.

The third type of computer problem represented in the report, phishing, has also seen a considerable rise in the past years. Although total losses standing at $630 million were considerably lower than from malware, phishing has become a major problem for online users. This is not only because of the fact that users have actual money stolen as a result of phishing scams, but also due to associated ID theft risks. According to survey data, as many as 20% of households do not have any antivirus products installed, and a third does not use antispyware, leading to more and bigger problems in today's cyber world.

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