Hackers have become very good at writing computer viruses and worms and have caused literally billions of dollars in damage. You've probably heard about the more damaging ones on the news. And there's a good chance that you've been infected with a virus or worm yourself, or you know someone who has. You may not even know you've been infected in most cases if you don't have the right anti-virus protection.

Viruses in the past have been more of an expensive nuisance than anything, infecting millions of computers with no real purpose. Viruses of the past caused performance problems on computers, possibly even shutting them down, forcing victims to have a professional remove the virus or reformat the computer. But the resulting damages has been staggering.

FACTS:

. There are over 500 new viruses and worms released on the Internet each month.

. At least 82% of current anti-virus users have been recently infected with a virus.

. Less than 33% of those using anti-virus are working from a current anti-virus database.

. New, fast moving viruses and worms can infect hundreds of thousands of computers in a matter of a few hours.

. It can take many hours, even days, for security firms to create an anti-virus signature to defend against new viruses. Everyone is very susceptible to infection during that time.

. You can be infected through emails, instant messenger, downloads and by simply surfing the web.