The Internet environment will remain dangerous next year, as computer viruses, spam and online phishing will continue to haunt individual and enterprise users, according to a report released by an Internet security company yesterday
The report, released by Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技), indicated that the company has issued 30 virus alerts, including two high-risk alerts, this year, an increase of about 90 percent from a year ago. In terms of the number of infections, about 3.8 million computers were attacked worldwide, up 7.7 percent from last year, the report said.
Netsky, Mydoom and Lovegate, and their variants, ranked as the top three most-prevalent "malware," or malicious software, by Trend Micro's World Tracking Center. Trojans, worms and other backdoor programs that allow malicious users to remotely control infected systems, accounted for 81 percent of attacks this year, the report said.
"Users need to apply patches to their computer as soon as software companies announce system vulnerabilities," Scott Lee (
The Sasser worm, for example, damaged 18 million computers globally only 17 days after Microsoft announced the patch, Lee said.
Besides malicious intrusions, profit-driven scams -- attacks by bot programs that give remote access to hackers, as well as phishing and spam -- have significantly surged this year and caused huge losses among users.
Phishing scams often use official looking sites to dupe users into revealing personal information such as passwords or bank account numbers. The information has been used to withdraw or transfer money.
Lee warned local users to be especially careful about phishing. The nation's first phishing crime occurred in May, and managed to convince over 200,000 online banking users to divulge personal information.
Furthermore, users need to be more aware of attacks launched on popular Internet relay chat (IRC) and peer-to-peer (P2P) software, which are usually equipped with lower security measures, Lee said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by