4- Virus Prevalence StatisticsFor several years, we have collected statistics on virus incidents in a well-monitored population of several hundred thousand PCs as they occurred. For each incident, we recorded where and when it was reported, the number of infected PCs and diskettes, and the virus involved. As could be inferred from Section 3.2, this method requires that the population under observation possess three important characteristics:
The particular sample population that we have chosen to study is international, but biased towards the U.S. It is stable, both in makeup and in size. We believe it to be typical of Fortune 500 companies possessing the three important characteristics cited above, plus active central response to incidents.
Of course, these characteristics are not typical of many other environments,
so some of our results may not be representative of universities,
home users, and other businesses
which lack these characteristics. Nonetheless, from our observations
of this population we are able to infer much about worldwide
computer virus prevalence, as was explained in Section 3.2.1.
We believe that our statistics provide the most accurate picture
of virus prevalence that has yet been obtained
|
