Numbers and percentages - fact or fiction

"Hoax emails of naked Angelina Jolie cause 80% of computer viruses" says the headline. [This has been the big one this week - everyone has run this story so who am I to upset things]. Fake emails claiming to offer nude photographs of Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, Milla Jovovich and pixelated videogame babe Lara Croft are behind 80 per cent of computer viruses last month, according to experts. The story continues..."These emails are masquerading as pornographic content, tempting the unwary into opening a file on their Windows computer which will install a rootkit and download further malicious code from the internet," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

But the story does not link Cluley with the 80% claim. That is left to the experts. Which is quite humurous in itself, implying that Cluley or Sophos are not regarded as experts. What can I say?

Sophos does have its own "Angelina" story. The figures, compiled by Sophos's global network of monitoring stations, have shown a rise in the percentage of infected email. Overall in September, 0.12 percent of emails were carrying malicious email attachments, or 1 in every 833, compared to 1 in every 1000 during August. I couldn't find that elusive 80% number anywhere in that item.

I have two or three email addresses "out in the wild" that collect a huge number of spam messages. Strangely I did not receive one regarding Angelina's state of undress. Bank of America and eBay confirmation of account emails were the main culprits for me last month.

All these shock stories carry percentage numbers that are difficult to believe. Some of the numbers quoted in the above stories were fantastic. The story "Pressure on second-tier AV labs?" also had some incredible figures of - Over the first six months of 2007, anti-virus applications market leader Symantec found a total of 212,101 new malware variants, an astonishing 185 percent increase over the second half of 2006, totaling an average of well over 1100 unique samples arriving per day.

Now, I'm not saying that those figures are fabricated, [who needs the hassle of a lawsuit] but that's over 45 an hour. I'm surprised the bad guys can produce at such an incredible rate.

A recent study revealed 70% of computer users do not understand computer security basics.
Here's the real scary part:
30% don't even know what 70% means.

While I'm on a roll
As I've said before, these companies, whose press releases always begin...

**** a global leader in infrastructure software
**** a pioneer in secure content and threat management
**** a world leader in IT security and control

all need to maintain a constant high profile. That's why we will always see the same stories, all beginning with...

****, a world leader in [keeping their corporate name in the news], has just released a report that...

Spam levels reach record high
Fears over security at [Facebook, You Tube, MySpace, insert name here]
Mobile security is enterprise Achilles heel
Online fraud hits new high
Malware shows no sign of slowing
Trojan strikes...
Social networking 'addiction' aids phishing
Second-hand hard disk reveal company secrets

The security industry for years has faced a serious overpopulation problem. There are large number of vendors vying for attention, each with a product it claims is best-of-breed and an analyst report in hand testifying to that fact. And the stories will always run because the "world leader" is a major source of revenue for most of the "big name" security news providers.

And that is why I often go way off topic with some of my items. There are many days when there is no news, but sometimes an interesting story / new software / website appears and they may be of interest to both of my readers. Rant ends.