Unprotected computers getting infected faster

New viruses are infecting unprotected computers more quickly than before, according to tests conducted by the Korea Information Security Agency. The agency said yesterday that in the case of computers that operated on a Windows 2000 platform, those without anti-virus or security software were infected by viruses in an average of 13 minutes after connecting to the Internet. Unprotected computers operating on a Windows XP platform were infected in nine minutes and 39 seconds on average. Some with XP were infected in just five seconds. “We conducted similar tests two months ago, and the average time before infection decreased by 36 percent in the case of computers running on Windows 2000 and 26 percent for computers running on Windows XP,” an agency official said. A spokesman at AhnLab, Korea’s largest computer security developer, said personal computers are becoming more vulnerable to viruses because the number of worms or viruses on the Internet is increasing rapidly. “Computer users must install and update their security patches,” he said. by Chang Chung-hoon, Wohn Dong-hee