The number of Attacks on Internet computers are double the number reported last year, according to a government-funded security information clearinghouse, Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

With three months still remaining in 2001, the number of security incidents reported to the coordination center of the Computer Emergency Response Team in 2001 has already soared past the totals for 2000, according to statistics released by CERT today.

So far this year, 34,754 attacks have been reported to CERT, a 60 percent increase over the 21,756 incidents logged by the organisation in all of 2000.

If the incident reports continue at the current pace, this year could see over 46,000 reported security attacks, more than twice the number of such breaches reported in 2000.

Internet security this year has been threatened by several self-propagating worms that targeted Internet servers and spread widely, including Sadmind, multiple versions of Code Red, and Nimda.

In its annual report last year, CERT listed denial of service attacks, BIND domain name system software vulnerabilities, and the LoveLetter worm among the "most serious intruder activities" reported to CERT in 2000.

CERT's latest statistics also reveal a sharp rise in the number of software vulnerabilities reported to the Internet security center.