Companies are getting better at dealing with malware, a new report suggests.

Research from Computer Economics found that the business costs incurred by malware attacks dropped to $13.3 billion (£6.7 billion) in 2006 - compared to $17.5 billion (£8.9 billion) in 2004.

The study suggested that businesses were now more aware that they have to act to protect company IT networks from malware. Equally, software firms are producing updates to deal with new treats more quickly.

"Anti-malware technology is becoming more widely deployed and is fairly effective in defending against many types of malware threats," explained Mark McManus, vice president of research at Computer Economic.

"The antivirus vendors do a pretty good job of responding quickly to new variants, so new attacks don't have the time they used to have to develop into massive new worldwide infections."

However, the report also warned that more malware threats were now associated with attempted fraud and other financial crimes.