Zero-day viruses became commonplace in 2010

11.02.2011
Zero day viruses became more and more commonplace last year, according to analysis by managed security firm, Network Box.

In 2010, Network Box identified more than three million new threats and says 3,083,018 threat signatures were released through the year to protect against new or variant threats.

The company notes that zero day viruses got their name because of the "zero" time between a virus coming out, and the vulnerability used by that virus being commonly known.

Although standard anti-virus technologies can cope with various threats, they failed to offer protection from zero day viruses.

The security landscape is changing and virus writers have now begun to use Internet-based anti-virus sites to test their viruses prior to launch. As a result of this, a new virus can be released by its creator, immediately after being tested as not detected by any of the world's major anti-virus providers.