Beware! Indians at high risk of mobile phone malware

Kaspersky, which blocked 950M attacks in three months, also found that India was among the top affected by cryptors.
For representational purposes (File | PTI)
For representational purposes (File | PTI)

HYDERABAD: With 25.25 per cent of the total worldwide mobile threats being reported between July and September 2018, India figured among the top ten countries found to be most affected by it, a recent survey found. The survey, which is a part of a series of reports done by Kaspersky on digital threat in the third quarter of the year, ranked India 6th when it came to being the most affected by mobile malware.

Bangladesh took the top rank with 35.91 per cent of the total mobile attacks followed by Nigeria and Iran. Fifty-five per cent of the total malware detected was -- DangerousObject.Multi.Generic. This top-level computer virus is distributed via hacked websites embedded with dangerous codes, links on porn websites, fake e-mail attachments, free download sources and so on.

India’s high ranking can be explained by the availability of cheap mobile Internet coupled with a lack of awareness about digital safety. Another reason why the country is one of the victims is because a lot of intellectual property rights are generated here and criminals may try to steal them. The report also tabulated Telnet attacks separately where it ranked the country at the seventh to be most affected by it. Telnet is a text-based network protocol that is used for accessing computers over the Internet. An attack on it may allow the attacker to gain access to computers.  

Kaspersky, which blocked 950M attacks in three months, also found that India was among the top affected by cryptors. Cryptors are a type of software that make it harder to be detected by security programs.“In September, we observed a huge rise in infections, correlating with people returning from vacations,” the report said adding that Asian countries took most of the top ranks.

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The New Indian Express
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