Kaspersky - India 6th Largest Source of Spam Globally

A new study by Kaspersky Lab reveals that India may no longer be the world's leading sender of unwanted emails but it still has the dubious distinction of being the sixth largest source of spam globally.

Spammers used two main topics such as launches of iPhone 6 and Ice Bucket Challenge initiative to promote junk mailings during third quarter. This is another important conclusion disclosed by Kaspersky Lab in their research on the landscape of spam threats.

News.siliconindia.com published news on 3rd December, 2014 quoting Altaf Halde, Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab, South Asia as saying "Spammers are becoming cleverer in concealing their messages with offers looking authentic to the recipients such as offering iPhone 6 or offers to carry out marketing campaign which will enlarge business and draw new clients. Whenever unsuspecting users click or download an email attachment, computer trojans is downloaded with no knowledge of the user which can steal data or even hold the information at ransom (encrypting the information and asking for money to decrypt the data like CryptoLocker)."

Mis.asia.com published another statement on 3rd December, 2014 quoting Halde as saying "It has been imperative for Indian Internet users to protect themselves with authentic Internet Security or AV (Anti-Virus) solutions because threat vectors are increasing alarmingly along with the rise in activities by cybercriminals. Regarding spam, we now expect a sharp increase in the percentage of junk emails devoted to Christmas and New Year festivals until it reaches at its peak in December."

Industry experts believe that weak cyber laws encourage spammers to route operations via India.

Kaspersky had found India as leading producer of spam in January, February and March 2012.

It said that US (14%), Russia (6.1%) and Vietnam (6%) were the three biggest sources of spam in the latest quarter.

The report also sheds light on phishing in addition to spam. The phishing against online financial services in Q3 accounted for 38.23% of all detections registered by Kaspersky Lab products. Phishers targeted 32.08% users of PayPal, 31.51% of Visa and 24.83% of American Express users.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/10/2014