Germany Leads The European Cybercrime List With An Average Of 1,946 Active Bots Daily

By Author: EC-COUNCIL
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Germany comes in at the top of a European cybercrime list published by internet safety and security group Symantec. In 2010 alone, Symantec discovered 286 million new global threats to companies and private individuals operating online.
Germany leads all other European countries in cybercrime. Symantec found 473,480 computers that had been infected by so-called Bots, programs that run automatically, most often without the computer’s owner knowing about them. Bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyzes and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human.
Symantec said one out of every five Bot-infected computers in Europe is in Germany. On average 1,946 Bots were active in Germany every day and Symantec said the country is a preferred “logistics base” for people or companies distributing viruses, phishing emails or spam.
Britain takes the cake when it comes to malware or malicious code activity. And the ...
... country was also second in Phishing activities and spread of Trojans. It rose from sixth and fifth place, respectively, in 2009.
Attacks on smartphones, a relatively new cybercrime business area, almost doubled in 2010. Most of these attacks were in the form of Trojans that masqueraded as legitimate applications. Official App stores most often served as platforms for these activities. However, the threats so far have been contained by the mobile industry, according to security experts.
Mikko Hyppoenen, chief research officer at antivirus software company F-Secure, warned that if a worm made its way into mobile phones, it could spread globally in as little as five minutes. “It could have happened already. It hasn't, but it could happen.” Sooner or later it will happen, but there are no answers for when, Hyppoenen explained. But security companies and mobile phone makers have already found solutions to limit the attacks that have happened already, he said. “It won't work forever. Eventually we will see the first global outbreak. But we have been able to delay it by more than five years, at least.”
Kevin Haley, director, Symantec Security Technology and Response, said in a blog entry that many companies have not yet implemented security policies for smartphones and tablet PCs. “The most serious current risk is that users will download applications that include malicious code, giving hackers access to user information or even control over the device,” he said. And he added: “As mobile devices continue to become more critical to business in the coming years, we anticipate a sharp increase in destructive software developed specifically for these devices.”
Social networks also came under increased attack, according to Symantec. An oft-used ploy involved the transmission of shortened URLs via email or web pages. These then contain Phishing attacks or malware.
Worldwide, Symantec recorded more than 286 million malware threats, with targeted attacks growing especially fast. Many of these attacks use toolkits that target weakness in Java software. Web-based assaults were up 93 pc from 2009 and two-thirds of them involved toolkits.
The Hydraq and Stuxnet programs were used to attack much-used applications such as Internet Explore, Adobe Reader or Adobe Flash. These attacks target corporate IT systems in particular. According to the Symantec Threat Report, hackers gathered 260,000 identities with every attack. Hacking destroyed four times as many data as other problems.
Globally, the US and China top the charts of malicious activity by country, unchanged from a year earlier. Germany rises to third place from fifth and Brazil ranks fourth, unchanged from last year. Britain dropped from third to fifth place
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About EC-Council
The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) is a member-based organization that certifies individuals in various e-business and security skills. It is the owner and developer of the world famous Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) course, Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI) program, License Penetration Tester (LPT) program and various other programs offered in over 70 countries around the globe. EC-Council has trained over 80,000 individuals and certified more than 38,000 security professionals. These certifications are recognized worldwide and have received endorsements from various government agencies including the US federal government, National Security Agency (NSA), Committee and National Security Systems (CNSS), US Army, FBI, Microsoft and CERTs (Computer Emergency Response Team) of various nations. EC-Council is also the organizer of world renowned Hacker Halted IT security conference series. This year's hacker conference will be held in Miami, and is the ultimate white hat hacker con in the US. Hacker Halted is considered as one of the world largest information security conference.