Frank Scavo

Irvine, CA

President, Computer Economics

Yes, we did indicate that total 2005 economic impact from malware dropped from the 2004 numbers, but we also said that the changing nature of attacks--which Kaspersky highlights--might be causing damages to be underreported.

We wrote... " Furthermore, as the nature of malware attacks changes to covert attacks for financial gain, organizations that are specifically targeted are becoming less willing to disclose such incidents. This may be leading to an under-reporting of the category of "loss of business revenue."

Our position, actually, is very close to what Kaspersky outlines in this article.

Frank Scavo
President
Computer Economics

(Ed note. Nobody said you didn't Frank - the article is quite clear that the issue is with people who put too much faith in stats taken out of context - and not with the company producing the stats. The concern is that many people will see the headline figure - 'impact has fallen' - and assume things are getting better when potentially they are far worse.)