Computers used by businesses are attacked every 15 minutes by some form of malicious internet software…

Computers used by businesses are attacked every 15 minutes by some form of malicious internet software, while every hour an attack occurs that could render the machines useless, according to research by the BBC.

A so-called honeypot computer was set up as bait by a BBC News website reporter to monitor how frequently the average Windows PC is attacked. Simply being online, without visiting any sites, incited around four malicious attacks every hour. These range from annoying fake security warnings to viruses, worms and spyware that can cripple the affected computer, turn it into a ‘zombie’ machine that then sends out further viruses across the internet, or monitor all activity that goes on via the machine. Once infected, all other computers on the same network are vulnerable to the same fate.