Webroot Software released a report which states that more than 40 per cent of surveyed businesses suffered from service disruption caused by spyware, trojan horses, viruses and other malware.

Webroot's report explains how service disruptions caused by malicious software affect companies and how much financial burden it generates. Webroot is using an automated Phileas system to crawl the web and to detect potentially dangerous spyware.

Phileas' pattern-matching technologies allow it to identify exploits as they appear on the Web.

By continuously crawling the Web, Phileas identifies suspected spyware and returns it to the Webroot's headquarters for definition development.

Webroot's study showed that 26 per cent of the companies questioned, reported that they have been affected by a leak of confidential information as a result of malware.

Recent reports and surveys conducted by other independent security vendors have found that the highest volume of malicious online activity originates from the United States.