The level of cyber attacks decreased for the first time in the second half of 2002, dropping six per cent.

That's according to Symantec's Internet Threat Report, published today, which bring together data gleaned from the security firm's acquisition of SecurityFocus and RipTech with its other sources for the first time.

The report found that damage caused by recent blended threats, such as Opaserv, was less than that caused by older threats, such as Code Red.

Symantec reports that although cyber attacks decreased the number of vulnerabilities shot up. It documented 2,524 new vulnerabilities in 2002, up 81.5 per cent from 2001.

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