Philippines Recorded the Highest Malicious Internet Activities in 2008

According to a report released by Symantec, a software security company, the Philippines continued to be one of the largest Internet traffic, involving malicious activities, attracting countries during 2008.

The company's recent Security Threat Report Volume XIV indicates that with respect to the largest amount of malicious Internet traffic, the Philippines ranks No.10 in the Asia-Pacific region and No.4 in Southeast Asia. This malicious traffic relates to the propagation of computer viruses and worms as well as Trojans.

However, the country's total malicious traffic continues to be smaller than that of China, the country, which ranks No.1. Moreover, China contributes 41% to the overall malicious Internet activities in the Asia-Pacific region, with South Korea following at 11% and the remaining countries at 2%-10%.

Additionally, the Philippines ranks No.4 and No.10 in the Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia regions respectively in terms of the highest number of compromised or bot-infected PCs.

Moreover, Symantec's report further shows that the Philippines contributes only 2% of the entire malicious Internet activities in the Asia-Pacific-Japan region, a rate that has remained fixed since the previous reporting year of 2007.

Edler Panlilio, Sales Manager, Symantec Philippines Enterprise, states that there would be more of this problem as malicious program writers continue to prey credit card holders, as reported by Inquirer on April 28, 2009.

However, it is possible to prevent the spreading of malicious programs through the installation of security software on individual PCs and the overall network, said Panlilio. Other precautions are to set e-mail servers in such a way that block malicious attachments from e-mails, and to train company staff about avoiding suspicious attachments.

Furthermore, Symantec states that a co-relation exists between the country's broadband penetration and the rise in malicious activities. The report further states that as broadband and Internet usage increases in particular nations, their contribution to malicious activities too increases, as the high-speed broadband connections make a substantial impact on computers.

Additionally, during 2008, Symantec observed that spam mails across the entire Internet increased to 349.6 Billion from 119.6 Billion in 2007, while botnets were behind 90% of the total spam distributed.

Related article: Philippines Circulates Spam Accounting for 87% of E-mails

» SPAMfighter News - 11-05-2009

All SPAMfighter products offer a free trial!

SPAMfighter is a free spam filter for Outlook, Outlook Express,Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail and Thunderbird.

Optimize your Slow PC for better performance. Try FREE scan now

Disk space recovery
and disk optimization. Try FULL-DISKfighter free

SPAMfighter Exchange Module is a Spam filter for Exchange server - Free 30 days trial.

Remove Spyware with SPYWAREfighter - Free 30 days trial

Antivirus software for your Windows PC - Free 30 days trial