That comes out to about 55,000 new viruses each day, 2,300 per hour, 38 per minute, and one every two seconds, according to Website AV-Test.
So far this year, the lab has gathered some 704,984 different malware types in its repository. A little history for perspective: In 1985, the lab collected just 553 different viruses; in the year 2000, 176,312 viruses; and in 2006, more than 1 million. Last year alone, AV-Test found nearly 20 million different malware variants.
"Andreas Marx at AV-Test has shared some more information which highlights the significance of the malware problem," blogged Alex Eckelberry, CEO of Sunbelt Software. "The numbers are staggering -- AV-Test processed an average of 54k samples per day in 2010, up from an average of 33k in 2009 -- and up from 426 samples per day just a decade ago."
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