Central & South American Countries Host High Percentage of Malware

According to a latest study by the security firm Zscaler, Central and South American countries such as Argentina and Honduras are spreading and hosting malware at a higher percentage of their total Internet traffic compared to other countries.

Zscaler has prepared the first-quarter "State of the Web" report and states that it has analyzed every country on the basis of a large percentage of malicious activities against benign servers. Out of the top 10 countries hosting malware distributing severs, seven are the South and Central American countries.

Honduras has exhibited the ratio of 7.5% and occupied the second place after the Cayman Islands representing the ration of 10.2%.

The rest of the Top malware hosting countries are Bolivia (6.25%); Peru (6.11%); Argentina (6%); Paraguay (5.13%); Ecuador (5.05%); Columbia (4.54%); Luxembourg (4.47%) and Turkey (3.94%).

However, the report has revealed that the US is the prime source of malicious traffic - aggravating SQL-injection assaults, botnets and worms. The report discloser seems accurate considering the fact that the US lead in terms of serving up and generating all types of Internet traffic.

Expressing his views on the report findings, Mike Geide, a Zscaler Senior Researcher, said that his theory on the findings was a combination of education and economics, as reported by Government Technology on May 24, 2010.

He further added that these nations attracted attention of many companies which had a vulnerable presence. These companies adopted new technologies in haste to create their websites or to create other online things used by other companies of the same domain, but they forgot to take necessary precaution with regard to security.

He further revealed that countries with emerging markets and companies should learn lesson from other countries that already had an experience of pains afflicted while installing/adopting new technology.

Meanwhile, different Google services (Gmail, blogs, search, group, etc) have risen to the top position on the threat list. All these services translate into the dissemination and installation of malicious software without the knowledge of end user or consent. Google is followed by ThePlanet that provides hosting service and has a history of criminal abuse.

The report has also disclosed that mature botnets - Koobface, Monkif, Zeus and Torpig - survive and thrive although the awareness programs and efforts putting impediments.

Related article: Contract Killer Spam Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 04-06-2010

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