How Does Malware Spread

According to a recent slide show by CIOINSIGHT here are the main ways that viruses and malware infect your computer system.

72% - File Sharing Executables. Viruses and worms copy themselves onto removable media (thumb drives, floppy disks, USB drives) and from there on to other computers.

42% by Common Internet File System, meaning that they were passed by email, and from the email to a server then to all other computers on the network

90% by Email attachments. Good old Spam still works! We all get the emails that appear to be by someone that we know. However later on we find out that it was a hoax or a virus.

24% - Remote exploitable vulnerability, where hackers use vulnerabilities within the Operating System or Web Browser to gain control of your system or to install malware.

5% - File Sharing, perhaps via sharing a MP3 file with a friend.

4% - HTTP, embedded URL, Instant Messenger, This can include other SAS items like Facebook, MySpace, etc.

2% from SQL, Mass SQL injection attacks hit unprotected sites and use them to perform drive-by downloads an infect thousands of machines.

The simple answer is to know where things are coming from, whether it be the mp3 file or the email attachments that just came into your inbox. Second, to keep things like Anti-virus and malware & spyware software updated, as they are your first line of defense. Finally, when in doubt, just don't open the file, the attachment, etc. Delete the item before it causes hard.