Internet users are likely to face various forms of virus outbreaks in the year 2005, according to a forecast by an anti-virus firm.
"Blended threats, which compromise and considerably drain network resources, will continue to hound Internet users in 2005," said Trend Micro, which is also into Internet content security software and services, in a forecast released in Chennai.
The year 2004 bustled with serial virus attacks. It also saw an increase in 'bot programmes', 'spam' and 'phishing' incidence.
There was also an increase in spyware and adware generation, indicating that the trouble-makers were trying to cash in on every
popular Internet application and device and every available security loophole, it said.
In 2005, 'spam' and 'phishing' would continue to be a major concern, causing e-mail glut and requiring better filtering services, it said.
Spam volume had swelled to comprise 60 per cent of all email messages in 2004. Trend Micro registered a total of 1,681,773 spam mails in 2004, 34.45 per cent of which were financial in nature, while 20 per cent fall under the health category, it said.
"IRC (Internet relay chat) and P2P (peer to peer) communication will continue to be weak security links requiring moderation policies," Trend Micro said.