Symantec's latest report highlights the UK's broadband boom as a key contributor to the fact that over a quarter (25.2%) of all compromised computers were based here (24.6% USA, 7.8% China):

Symantec says this is because many high-speed Internet users don't have sufficiently robust security.

Symantec wasn't able to say how many bots it discovered in total during the period, or how many were based in the UK. It did say, though, that in July 2004 it was finding an average of 30,000 new compromised PCs each day, which fell to 5,000 per day by December.

"The fact that Britain has the highest percentage of bot infections is significant because it is directly linked to the rapid roll-out of broadband in this country,” explained Nigel Beighton, Symantec’s director of enterprise strategy. "Unfortunately, new broadband users may not be fully aware of the additional safety precautions that need to be taken when using an always-on high-speed Internet connection. Clearly, awareness around security issues is improving and it’s making a notable difference, but education still remains the number one challenge."

To the experienced surfer this will come as no great shock; such issues have existed since the first days of the Internet.

Thankfully more ISP's are waking up to the fact that many users lack the ability to install a firewall or virus checker. Each day brings news of ISP's adopting one system or another to improve security, yet they can't cover everything. More @ ZDNet.