Chennai – The No. 2 Malware-Infected Indian City

A latest report from the security firm Symantec reveals that Chennai has become the second Indian city after Mumbai to receive most of the malware assaults. This clearly suggests that systems in Chennai are compromised by cybercriminals to steal confidential information.

Vishal Dhupar, Symantec India's Managing Director, stated that on an average, India recorded 836 bots per day in 2008 and 1,03,812 different bot-infected systems were there in the country in the same year, as reported by The Times of India on May 28, 2009. According to him, Chennai represents around 24% of total bot-infected systems in the country.

The number of bot-infected computers in the country has been sharply increasing due to the lack of security measures adopted by the firms, such as Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Prevention, states Symantec's report.

Detachable media devices like USB sticks, thumb drives, MP3 players, pen drives and smart phones were registered as the major sources of malware infection. The report highlights that around 40% of online threats recorded in India emancipated from the above listed devices.

Moreover, malicious attacks on the website of the Indian government have surged to a big extent. Private sites, too, are also not spared. For instance, recently, the Department of Telecommunication (DOT) was hit by malicious attacks.

If a person makes attempt to visit website of All India Congress Committee (www.aicc.org.in/new/) via Google, he will encounter a warning message that reads like "this website may harm your computer".

Over the last three months from March 2009 onwards, Google has examined 301 pages on the aforementioned site, out of which 33 were found to trigger the downloading of the malicious content without the knowledge of user. Lastly, on May 26, 2009, a malicious content was discovered on the site. The malicious content included 80 scripting flaws, which is an enormous malicious activity for a website.

These mounting malware activities, according to security experts, are due to wide access of the Internet. They informed that cyber attacks are getting increasingly sophisticated as criminals assess all the security measures present in the market. Thus, the key to remain protected is to get updated with the latest Internet threats and accordingly implement the most effective security solution.

Related article: China’s Best Initiatives To Deal With Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 6/4/2009