Experts who discover and report security holes seem to be far more industrious than the malicious hackers willing or able to exploit those holes. Despite the thousands of hackable holes that lurk in e-mail, on websites, in files and operating systems, most users' computers are never afflicted with more than the virtual version of a sniffle.
Few of the ominous potential traumas reported in 2002 turned out to have any real impact on most computer users. The Klez virus infected some machines and spawned spam that continues to clutter many e-mail inboxes. And the Linux Slapper worm made more work for some systems administrators for a while.
"I'd love to see people in the industry turn their attention to developing broad-reaching security tools that make a real difference rather than focusing on finding each and every little possible exploit," security consultant Richard Smith said.
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