CYBERSPACE — Sometimes it seems like everything is made in China. According to a recent research project, when it comes to malware and spam, that’s not too far from the truth. NetworkWorld.com reports that Network Box, a UK-based managed security vendor, claims that just last month Beijing exported not only a wide range of consumables but also 40-percent of all malicious code – nearly twice the previous month’s total. Another 5.25-percent of the traffic moving through the company’s servers was spam sent from the massive nation – less than half of what had appeared there during May.
Following China for antagonistic viral attacks were Wattleup, Australia, with a sad 3.7-percent, and Madrid, Spain, with a mere 2.5-percent.
Managing director Simon Heron explains that the company’s servers provide services for approximately 700 customers. Network Box covers each subscriber with a firewall, anti-spam, anti-virus, content filtering, and anti-phishing technologies, which capture 4 million examples of ill intended missives.
Part of the problem is the increasing number of Chinese citizens gaining access to the internet and using pirated software without current security fixes. Vulnerable and inexperienced, these users and their computers are ripe for picking by out of country hackers seeking an accommodating zombie computer.
In an example of what Heron calls “no honor amongst thieves,” rival viral runners that encounter strange infections will attempt to remove the software and replace it with their own. “If you finally have your Trojan onto a system,” he observes, “you don’t really want it running somebody else’s software, because there’s a better chance the user will realize it and do something about it.”
Further down the list of international cities intentionally or unintentionally exporting viruses and spam are Moscow, with 5.12-percent of the spam traffic, Seoul, with 3.58-percent, Turk, with 3.4-percent, and London, with 2.47-percent.
