The worms are turning on instant messaging programs—ten worms and variants thereof have been seen on America Online, ICQ, and MSN instant messaging networks in 2005's first six weeks, according to an analysis by Akonix Systems.
The security company said February 14 that that volume is over three times the volume seen in the first six weeks of 2004. The company also said that growing malware and spam attacks on instant messaging users would continue in 2005.
Akonix chief executive Peter Shaw said in a statement his company had predicted such growth for the third year straight.
"(T)he first widespread damage from a major IM attack would hit corporate networks worldwide in 2005," Shaw continued. "If we analyze the first six weeks of the year, we may have even underestimated the security threats enterprises are going to face over the next 10 months."
Speaking the day before company executives addressed those very matters at the PSA technology security conference in San Francisco, Akonix said the hiked-up malware attacks makes instant messaging management critical across all business organizations large or small.
Recent reporting by the Radicati Group suggested 85 percent of all businesses have instant messaging in use but only twelve percent may have enterprise solutions for securing and managing and protecting those IM networks.
