The federal government is starting to realize the real threats of botnets around the world. U.S. homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff speaking at the RSA conference said that the US government has launched a cyber security "Manhattan Project."

The US is realizing that online attacks can be a form of "devastating warfare", and equivalent in damage to "physical destruction of the worst kind."

Sophos claims that new and creative malware will push the total number of viruses/malware to one million by year's end. According to a report about 25 percent of unique malware has been created in the last six months of its 20 year history.