Malware is a collective term for various types of malicious software that infect a user’s computer. These include viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, spyware, adware, and several others.

Malicious software is becoming a bigger problem with each passing year, and it is growing at an increasingly faster pace than ever before. In fact, last year there were 74,000 new computer viruses created every single day on average.

Malware has grown to be such a tremendous problem that over 32 percent of the world’s computers are infected with some type of malware. With East Asian countries like China, South Korea, and Taiwan having the most infected computers.

Northwestern European countries such as Norway, Switzerland, and Sweden all have the lowest amount of computers infected with malware.

The United States has the eleventh highest rate of infection with just over 30 percent of households being infected with malware.

The most common types of malware are viruses, Trojan Horses, and unwanted software. The most common computer virus of all time is the Conficker worm. This worm targets Windows operating system flaws and spreads across networks forming a botnet of auto-acting malware. Conficker, also known as “Downup”, was first detected in late 2008 and spread to over 200 different countries making it the biggest, most widespread computer worm ever.

Last year, in the United States alone, malware cost us an estimated $4.5 billion, and one million U.S. households lost money or had accounts misused due to malicious software.

With each passing day it’s becoming more and more important that you have some sort of antivirus or security program on your computer. In addition to having software to protect your PC against threats, it’s also vitally important that you make smart choices while browsing the web and opening emails. Click here to buy our professional anti-malware application, Ad-Aware Pro Security.

In this infographic, we uncover some of the major trends in the malware industry and reveal several interesting statistics about computer viruses. Click the image to enlarge.

Source: April Adams, TopTenReviews