Cybercrime trend on the rise – Symantec

Symantec latest Internet Security Threat Report (volume XV) has revealed upward trends in cybercrime from Jan.1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2009.

In a two very prominent cyber attacks – Conficker in the opening months of the year and Hydraq at the very end, the report otherwise known as the ‘Corps’ highlighted continued growth in both volume and sophistication of the attacks.

Regional Director, Africa at Symantec, Gordon Love said that attacks have evolved from simple scams to highly sophisticated espionage campaigns targeting some of the world’s largest corporations and government entities.

“The scale of these attacks and the fact that they originate from across the world, make it a truly international problem requiring the cooperation of both the private sector and world governments,” Love said.

The Director, also revealed that Nigeria ranked number 43 in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and 70 in the world in 2009 for malicious activity.

“In comparison to the previous year, South Africa climbed seven places from 50 to 43 globally,” he said.

In the EMEA region in 2009, 49 per cent of the volumes of top 50 potential infections were classified as worms; which shows an increase from 30 per cent in 2008.

“More specifically, Egypt was the top-ranked country for viruses while Saudi Arabia was the top-ranked country for worms,” Love said.

Worms are malicious programs that replicate themselves from system to system without the use of a host file. This contrasts with viruses, which requires the spreading of an infected host file.

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