More than 100 malware attacks are occurring per second on personal computer worldwide, a study conducted by Symantec showed.

Symantec’s latest annual report claimed that the number of malware samples recorded in 2009 were higher by 71 per cent from the preceding year.

However, the report said a great majority of these malware attacks did not harm PCs, but it added that one attack in every 4.5 seconds caused problem.

Symantec vice president Vincent Weafer said fake anti-virus was the most prevalent form of cyber crime.

Speaking on the topic, he said, “Virtually everything we see today is fake AV (anti-virus). It’s such a money-making racket.”

He also cautioned Mac users working with cloud-based services to store their data on external servers.

Symantec said that 51 per cent of all the viruses and other malicious programs it had ever seen were logged in 2009.

Symantec further added that easy-to-use toolkits had been helping novice hi-tech criminals to create malware.

According to the report, Brazil and India were becoming hot-spots for the cyber crime.