Despite all the antivirus software, all the additional defense features in your computer’s operating system, and all the government regulations intended to manufacture the Net a safer place, your PC and your personal info are as threatened as ever.

whether you couldn’t already tell that from the latest e-mails offering to enlarge convinced parts of your anatomy or — congratulations! — saying you won millions in a Netherlands lotto, consider some statistics released last week by tech protection company Symantec Inc.:

– The amount of spam flowing by the Web grew by 16 percent in the second half of last year and now makes up more than 70 percent of all e-mail traffic. (Other World Wide Web safety measure companies put the proportion at 95 percent.)

– The number of computers used for “phishing” Web sites — designed to trick users into giving up sensitive financial or personal goods — more than quintupled in the second half of last year

from a year earlier.

– The amount of “malicious code” — computer-speak for viruses or other software designed to take by, shut down or steal info from computers — more than quadrupled last year. Symantec predicts there will soon be more poor software than good software in the computing world.

“It’s a constant black-hat, white-hat sort of game that’s never going to end,” said Neal Hartsell, vice president of product marketing for Austin, Texas-based computer shield company TippingPoint Technologies Inc.

“I don’t think anyone would propose that there hasn’t been a lot of progress made in addressing the kinds of threats we dealt with three or four years ago,” Hartsell said. “However, there’s a whole class of newer threats that hackers are using that are more sophisticated than ever.”

No longer is the typical hacker a teenager trying to deface Web sites or shut down a government network for just…

Orginal post by Top Tech News