“The survey shows that computer virus infections have
doubled each year for the past two years, reaching a total of 88
incidences per month for every 1,000 computers in February
1999, compared to 21 per month for the same period in 1997 and 32
per month in 1998.”
“For the first year, e-mail has replaced the floppy disk as the
mode of infection for computer viruses. More than half of all
viruses infecting computers in 1999 came through e-mail, up from 32
percent in 1998. Floppy disk infections, accounting for two-thirds
of all incidences in 1998, fell to 39 percent in 1999.”
“Three major virus incidents this year have underscored the
increase in the number of PCs catching the binary flu. In late
March, a Word macro virus named Melissa spread using e-mail. A
month later, a strain of CIH — named for its purported author,
Chen Ing-Hau –deleted formatting information on hard drives in the
U.S. and overseas. And, in early June, ExploreZip combined
Melissa’s e-mail attack with CIH’s malicious way of deleting
data.”