Interesting statistics were released this week in an industry report from our fellow security vendor, Panda Security:

Cyber criminals produced more malware in 2009 than they did in almost 20 years. 25 million new strains of malware were created this past year; a combined total of 15 million strains were created throughout the past two decades.

SC Magazine has the full report here.

To say cyber crime is booming is one thing – but to see the hard-hitting facts with this kind of historical comparison is quite another. It stresses the need to have updated security software in place on your PC. And, it also raises the question, has people's awareness of online crime, and knowledge of how to stay safe, also progressed at such a prolific rate?