Retail firms are suffering from a deluge of e-mails infect with viruses, a security firm has found.

According to MessageLabs, there is a huge disparity between the levels of security in different industries in the UK.

Retailers fare worst with one in every 24 e-mails infected with a virus, with the leisure and entertainment industries also suffering badly.

Central government offices have taken precaution against viruses, with only one in 2,658 e-mails infected. But the same is not true of city and local government which have with has an infection rate of one in 104.

Priorities

The legal and banking sectors have the most to lose from falling foul of an e-mail virus.

Consequently they do best when it comes to keeping systems secure with the lowest infection rates so far in 2002.

Virus/e-mail ratio

Retail: One in 24 Building and construction: One in 103 Local government: One in 104 Telecoms: One in 356 Manufacturing: One in 1,279 Finance and banking: One in 5,208

"The different attitudes towards anti-virus protection amongst industry sectors are quite amazing," commented Chief Technology Officer at MessageLabs Mark Sunner.

"The retail industry really needs to take a look at its priorities. One virus in every 24 e-mails indicates a huge virus problem which needs to be resolved," he said.

Viruses such as the Kournikova worm and the I Love You bug which infected millions of PCs have not made the headlines this year but that does not mean the problem has gone away.

"Companies may think that because we haven't seen many new viruses in 2002 that the problem has lessened. In fact MessageLabs has already seen twice as many viruses in 2002 than in all of 2001," said Mr Sunner.

New guidelines

There is concern about the level of security among UK firms. A recent government survey found that over one third of corporate websites had no internet firewall, with 17% of firms having no anti-virus protection.

To create a better climate for e-business in Britain, UK E-commerce Minister Stephen Timms has launched tough new guidelines about how businesses secure their networks

It includes making every individual that uses the network responsible for security, incorporating security as an essential element of information systems and swift action on the detection of security breaches.

The CBI welcomed the new guidelines and urged businesses to adopt them.

"Far too many businesses are crossing the information highway without knowing anything about the risk," said a CBI spokesman.