Brazil Leads Latin America With Highest Malicious Internet Activity

The latest Global Internet Security Threat Report by Symantec, the US-based company for computer security, highlights Brazil as the leading country in malicious Internet activity in Latin America, and Argentina as the next largest spam generating country in the region.

While Argentina accounts for 14% of all spam from Latin America, other countries leading in spam generation are Chile with 12%, Peru and Mexico with 11% each, and Costa Rica with 1%, tenth in the list.

According to the report, Brazil generates 36% of the total spam in Latin America, and accounts for 40% of all the bot-infected computers. This is based on the data brought together in the threat report for the last six months of 2007.

The report findings also indicate that Brazil hosts most of the phishing Websites in the continent. Further, it harbors the maximum number of servers that compromise computers and control attacks against PCs.

Also, according to the report, Brazil is experiencing an increase amount of malicious activity on the Internet This has taken the country from 12th position to 9th in the list of countries with the most malicious online activity.

In a Symantec news publication during the 2nd week of April 2008, Vice President, Stephen Trilling of Symantec Security Technology and Response said that the modern Internet crime is focused on hacking legitimate Websites and using them to launch cyber attacks on other computers. That emphasizes the significance of having a sound security system irrespective of where the computer is taken to or what it is made to do online.

Meanwhile, elucidating on phishing as an escalating problem in Latin America, Symantec's Vice President for Latin America, Wilson Grava, said that the issue is as grave in the continent as in any other country, as reported by LATIN BUSINESS CHRONICLE on May 12, 2008.

Besides, along with phishing, the number of bot-infected computers is also increasing in Latin America. In this case too, Brazil leads with 40% of bot-infected PCs while Argentina follows second with 17%, Peru with 13%, Chile with 9%, Mexico with 7% and Venezuela with 1%, although at the tenth spot.

Related article: Brazilian President's Party Website Disrupted

» SPAMfighter News - 5/19/2008