Zombie computers 'on the rise' 病毒攻击的电脑“数量上升”

Twelve million computers have been hijacked¹ by cyber-criminals and detected by security vendor² McAfee since January, the firm has said.

自从一月一来，1200万台电脑被黑客攻击过，并被McAfee检测到。

20,000 plus new samples of malware are detected every day, say experts

It reports there has been a 50% increase in the number of detected so-called "zombie（巫毒崇拜，蛇神）" computers since 2008.

The true number of newly hijacked PCs is likely to be higher than those detected by McAfee alone.

The figures come as a report from Deloitte said a global approach to cyber-security was needed.

"Doing nothing is not an option," said Deloitte's Greg Pellegrino.

Everything that depended on cyberspace³ face unprecedented⁴（空前的） risks, said Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT).

"This issue is moving so quickly, and with so much at stake economically and in terms of safety and security for people, we don't have 100 years to figure this out," explained Mr Pellegrino, who is a global public sector⁵ industry leader at DTT.

McAfee also revealed that the United States now hosted the world's largest percentage of infected computers at 18% with China a not too distant second with just over 13%.

"The massive expansion of these botnets（网络僵尸） provides cyber-criminals with the infrastructure⁶ they need to flood the web with malware（恶意软件）," said Jeff Green, senior vice-president of McAfee.

"Essentially⁷, this is cyber-crime enablement."

There are 32,000 suspected cyber-attacks every 24 hours, says the NSA

"Daily living"

The DTT findings revealed a growing awareness⁸ of the role the internet plays in so many different aspects of our lives from security to commerce and from transportation to communication.

"We are seeing this change from protecting the internet to a conversation about how we succeed and prosper⁹ in cyberspace," Mr Pellegrino told the BBC.

"Security spending is growing at a rate never seen before while the threat environment is growing at a pace of 40% a year.

"In terms of volume and severity of incidents, the math doesn't work and we have to come up with a different approach that requires public and private sectors¹⁰ working together," Mr Pellegrino said.

"We are talking about daily living," said fellow author Gary McAlum, who is a retired¹¹ US Air Force colonel and senior manager of security and privacy services at Deloitte.

"There is a lot of discussion about the economy and the military and the public and private sector, but we have now reached a sense of urgency about the interconnectedness（使互相连接） of all these areas."

That view was echoed by a member of the US military top brass¹² who just gave evidence to a branch of the House Armed Services Committee.

"Our economy, the nation's critical infrastructure, and many of our military operations depend on unfettered（无拘无束的） access to cyberspace," said Lt Gen Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) who also heads the Pentagon's new Cyber Command.

"Maintaining freedom of action in cyberspace in the 21st Century is as inherent（内在的，固有的） to US interests as freedom of the seas was in the 19th Century, and access to air and space in the 20th Century."

He has called for the creation of a digital warfare¹³ force for the future and has stated that the US needs to reorganise its offensive and defensive¹⁴ cyber-operations.