Symantec announced that malicious code activity continued to grow at a record pace throughout 2008, primarily targeting confidential information of computer users.

According to the company's Internet Security Threat Report(ISTR) volume XIV, Symantec created more than 1.6 million new malicious code signatures in 2008. This equates to more than 60 percent of the total malicious code signatures ever created by Symantec-response to the rapidly increasing volume and proliferation of new malicious code threats. These signatures helped Symantec block an average of more than 245 million attempted malicious code attacks across the globe each month during 2008.

The ISTR is derived from data collected by millions of Internet sensors, research, and monitoring of hacker communications, and provides a global view of the state of Internet security. The study period for the ISTR XIV covers January 2007 to December 2008.

In tune with the global trends, India too saw a substantial increase in its proportion of malicious activity in almost every category. India had the fifth highest number of broadband subscribers in the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region in 2008 and the third highest volume of malicious activity, with 10 percent of the regional total. Computers from the US and China were the leading source of web-based attacks targeting India, accounting for 84 percent and five percent respectively.

According to the report, India had an average of 836 bots per day during 2008 and there were 1,03,812 distinct bot-infected computers observed in the country during the period. This was a staggering increase of nearly 250 percent from the previous report.

Amongst the cities in India with the highest number of bot-infected computers, Mumbai figured at the top with 37 percent followed by Chennai at 24 percent and Delhi at seven percent. Cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Surat, Ahmadabad, Cochin and Pune too had a sizeable share of bot-infected computers.

Another alarming trend for Internet users in India is the threat landscape being heavily infested with worms and viruses. In the APJ region, India ranked first on worms and viruses attacks prevalence chart. Nine of the top 10 malcodes found in India consisted of worms (55 percent) and viruses (15 percent) that disabled security related processes, downloaded additional threats and stole confidential information.

Twelve percent of spam detected in APJ in 2008 originated in India, making it the third-ranked country for this category. In 2007, India was the fifth-ranked APJ country, accounting for only four percent of spam in the region. It had the second highest number of spam zombies, with 17 percent of the regional total, and the fourth highest number of bots, with five percent of the total. The high ranking of India in these categories is the main reason for the high volume of spam originating there.

DQC NEWS BUREAU

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