China Held Leading Position in Spam Production despite Decline in Spam & Virus Levels

As per the web security firm 'Network Box,' the level of viruses and spam came down in the month of September but the US and Brazil remained the chief sources of them.

A study of cyber threats in September 2009 by Network Box indicates that while the level of viruses and spam declined somewhat, viruses hailing from Brazil increased by 2% and China took the place of Korea and became the world's third largest spam producer. Its level of spam increased by only 1% in September.

Moreover, Brazil secured the leading position and became the world's top producer of viruses, with almost 16.4% of viruses hailing from there, leaving behind the US by (4.6%) and Korea by an enormous 10.4%. Although Brazil stood at top on the spam charts, spam coming from Brazil declined by 1.6% in September 2009. On the other side, the spam level from the US also tumbled by 1.10%.

The security report states that the treat of phishing assaults remained high at 33.2% in September. While the level of spam and viruses declined slightly, it is important that IT officials and departments should not leave their guard against what are increasingly sophisticated exploits, said the report.

Researchers added that the huge number of latest vulnerabilities announced by both Apple and Microsoft resulted in a fury of malware activities. These activities were spearheaded by an extraordinary rise in website defacements.

Internet Security Analyst at Network Box, Simon Heron, states that the attention is on the rising percentage of phishing attacks. It shows that this has proved as a successful method and there should be no hesitation in accepting the fact that these exploits are becoming more advanced and sophisticated. Thus, IT officials should grab this opportunity as people get back to their work from holiday by repeating their alerts about phishing. They should endeavor to make them aware of rising danger, as reported by NETWORK BOX on September 30, 2009.

In addition, the company's researchers mentioned that the IT officials should know about their employees' knowledge of the latest dangers and accordingly update security solutions and procedures.

Related article: China’s Best Initiatives To Deal With Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 10/20/2009