US and Brazil - Leading Sources of Spam and Viruses

According to the security vendor Network Box, the US and Brazil kept on producing viruses and spam throughout the month of August, though there was a slight decline in the level from July 2009.

As per the analysis of online threats by Network Box in August 2009, by producing 15.9% of all viruses, the US continues to be the major source of viruses in the world. Brazil comes just after the US, generating 14.5% of the viruses, nearly similar to the level of 14.1% in July.

Brazil still retains its dominance in spam generation, producing 11.6% of the total spam, which was followed by the United States (8.6%) and South Korea (7.2%). At 17.3%, South Korea continues to lead in intrusion attacks.

It was also figured out in the firm's analysis that the malware volume, which was at peak in July 2009 (when there was a jump of 300% in volumes), are back to the figure noticed in June 2009, when around four viruses per customer per hour. Likewise, spam volume has also gone down marginally, which reached at an average of 90 spam e-mails per customer per hour from the high of approximately 120 in May 2009.

Besides this, volume of phishing attacks continued to be high, at 33% of total viruses. This percentage is fractionally down from July's 36.2%, but still substantially higher than June's 5%.

According to Network Box, the firm has brought down its global alert condition to Level 2, claiming it as the lowest since November 2008. This indicates less number of worm/virus activities have been observed during the period, with none of the major threat or unexploited vulnerability.

Mark Webb-Johnson, CTO, Network Box, stated that Apple and Microsoft both revealed a huge number of fresh flaws that resulted in an increased malware activity, led by big number of site defacements that has never been seen earlier, as per the news published by The Industry Standard on September 4, 2009.

He further noted that the users who haven't patched are infected while those who have patched are safe. Therefore, the volume of new infections seems to be equalized.

Security experts have asked businesses and individuals to remain extremely cautious, particularly from phishing attacks.

Related article: US Passes Baton to Asia in Spam Relay

» SPAMfighter News - 9/22/2009