Russia: Malware Hub of the World

Experts at security provider PC Tools disclosed that Russia has outranked the US and China as the largest creator of viruses and spyware worldwide. Russia is currently producing 27.89% of total malware, China comprising 26.52%, and the US only 9.98%.

Russia has yet again been identified and disgraced for its growing image as an international malware center. In the closing week of February 2008, Sophos placed Russia at the second position of its list of spam-spreading nations after the US but far ahead of the usually suspected China.

The special Russian analyst at PC Tools, Sergei Shevchenko, was certain that Russia's first position was noteworthy, and also associated it with the nation's dark legends. He also said that the void created by the RBN (Russian Business network) has been filled by various malware providers, as reported by PC World on February 23, 2008.

The research conducted by PC Tools proves that presently, there are much higher levels of malevolent programs originating in Russia than earlier and these malware are very high-tech. The tendency is to create several varieties of malware and deluge networks so that the crackers wait and watch the fallout and identify which machines could be corrupted.

As per news published by centredaily on February 22, 2008, Shevchenko alleged that currently, Russian malware hosting networks are being promoted in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Panama, and Turkey with 'shadow' distributors in the US, making cybercrime difficult to record.

According to the Dmitry Kurashev, Director of Famatech, a Russian IT firm, there are a number of factors attributing to Russia outranking other countries in spreading malware. Primarily, the economy of Russia is growing; as a result, there are greater number of PCs and countless new customers in the country. And Russia has a population of 142 Million, so there's a need to compare it against the statistics of other nations like Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, and South Korea, as reported by PC World on February 23, 2008.

Also, Russia has a rising population of computer users, who seem to be not well protected against infection via malware. Britain, in contrast, has a developed market and fairly effective security.

Related article: RSA Attendees Responsible for Wireless Vulnerability

» SPAMfighter News - 2/28/2008