Traditionally, malware has tended to originate mainly from countries like Brazil and America, with other nations such as Korea and India joining them in the top 10 malware charts in recent years. However, October’s threat stats reveal that the level of malware originating from the top 10 is decreasing.
Unfortunately, rather than an overall decrease in spam and virus levels, this only means that the sources of malware are starting to spread to other nations. As mentioned earlier this month international co-operation is incredibly important in the fight against malware producers, especially if, as October’s figures suggest, producers are spreading their net of operations to nations which have little experience of this crime.
So, what does this mean for us as internet users? Well, we all need to ensure that we are doing our part to prevent this crime from being a profitable one. That means protecting our computers from intrusions and doing everything in our power to protect our personal data when online. Not only should we all be wary about what links we click on in emails, social networking sites and IM, but we should examine what data we put online. How much information do you give away on your Facebook profile for example? How secure are your passwords? In the end, it will be difficult for any level of international co-operation to succeed in tackling cyber-crime if we as individuals do not exercise caution ourselves.
The October threat stats can be viewed in full on the Network Box website.
[...] The spread of malware production [...]