USA - Top Country for Vulnerable Computer Applications

According to a recently published WorldMap by Secunia (the Danish provider of vulnerability intelligence), there is an increasing trend of insecure software on a single computer. This means the total number of computer viruses, malicious codes, computer trojans and other malware on a single computer are growing.

In reality, the analysis by Secunia appears to be pretty astonishing as it indicates that the United States occupies the top position worldwide so far as the total amount of malware on a single PC is concerned. It is found that Secunia's statistics matches with the trend of malware distribution noted in recent period.

While studying the findings of Secunia, it becomes evident that Cuba leads North America with an average of 15 malicious programs, followed by Mexico and Canada with an average of 4 malicious programs, and the United States leads with 3 insecure programs per computer. Nonetheless, Secunia's stress is on the overall scenario that shows there exists a minimum of 2.7 Billion vulnerable applications on computers of US alone, meaning that computer trojans or malicious codes targeted on each American computer are comparatively higher.

Furthermore, cyber criminals are observed to increasingly depend on software vulnerabilities for their objective of infecting computers. They target vulnerabilities that not only affect the Windows operating software but also other widely used applications like Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player, Word, PowerPoint, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.

In an advice given to computer users, Manager of Personal Software Inspector (PSI) Partner Program at Secunia, Mikkel Winther, said end-users should deploy security patches for all vulnerable applications on their systems and they should do it immediately following the release of the patch by its vendor. If a user fails to adopt the required patch, it could lead to disastrous consequences such as his computer could be compromised, as reported by SOFTPEDIA on June 25, 2009.

The analysis done by Secunia further suggests that a huge volume of malicious computer operations come from cyber criminals inside the USA, while others emanate from criminals who attack the American websites from beyond the country's boundaries.

Related article: US Passes Baton to Asia in Spam Relay

» SPAMfighter News - 7/6/2009