Regular Scanning of PCs Crucial to Staying Virus Free
Middle East Accounts for 3.56 Percent of Worldwide Spam;
2008 Witnessed Spam Messages Peaking at 200 Billion in One Day Alone
Trend Micro (TSE:4704, NASDAQ: TMIC), a global leader in Internet content security, has said that 2009 will witness a dramatic increase in the number of infected PCs worldwide, many of them in the Middle East, because businesses and individuals fail to regularly scan their PCs.
In the last month alone, Trend Micro’s HouseCall has cleaned more than 350,000 computers in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has seen more than 288,134 infected computers cleaned; in the UAE 71,408 infected computers have been fixed.
“Regular scanning of machines should be a top priority,” commented Samir Kirouani, Technical Manager, Middle East and Africa, Trend Micro. “Our dependence on the Web raises our vulnerability. Most of us are not even aware of our machines being compromised.”
With more than 115 billion spammed messages being generated globally on a daily basis, the Web has evolved to become a primary threat-infection medium for modern-day attacks. The Middle East accounts for 3.56 % of global spam, of which the UAE has the highest spam count, followed closely by Saudi Arabia.
“While it does not replace a comprehensive security solution, Trend Micro’s HouseCall is an easy way to check for viruses, and, above all, it’s free. Working on a compromised machine is a security risk, for the individual and for businesses,” added Kirouani.
HouseCall is an application for checking whether your computer has been infected by viruses, spyware, or other malware. HouseCall also performs additional security checks to identify and fix vulnerabilities to prevent re-infections.
