Some 85 percent of computers in China were affected by viruses in 2003, 1.59 percentage points higher than the level in 2002 and 25.57 percentage points higher than the 2001 level, according to a survey released Monday.

The survey was conducted nationwide in the two months until June 10 by the public information network security supervision bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.

Virus infections this year caused losses to some 63 percent of users of computers involved in the survey, a slight drop compared with the figure a year ago.

Downloading through the Internet, visiting websites, and opening e-mail attachments are the main channels for the spread of computer viruses, said the survey.

Computer viruses are still the main threat to China's information network security, said the survey.

Lack of prevention awareness and lowered capability to prevent infection by viruses are the reasons behind the high virus infection rate of computers in China, said experts.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2003)