The US has emerged as a leading source and recipient of cyberattacks, according to data revealed in the Threat Map of security vendor Check Point.
Hosted on the company’s website, the newly released map contains a real-time record of various cyberattacks taking place across the globe, including details of malware strains and the origin and destination of the attack.
Whilst the US leads on both fronts, the UK ranked seventh on the list of attacking countries, one place behind China but ahead of Germany.
"It can be hard for organisations to grasp the sheer speed and global scale at which cyberattacks happen," said Marie Hattar, chief marketing officer for Check Point.
"We wanted to develop a tool to help businesses understand how rapidly the threat landscape is moving so that they can take steps to strengthen their security implementations and better defend themselves against attacks."
Data on the map is based on Check Point’s ThreatCloud database, which analyses 250 million addresses for bot discovery and holds 11 million malware signatures and details of 5.5 million affected websites.
It catalogues several types of malware including backdoors, trojans and worms, and can also track advanced hacking campaigns known as advanced persistent threats (APTs).
"The ThreatCloud World Cyber Threat Map shows where attacks are starting, the types of attack and their targets in more detail than any other resource, because it uses real-time intelligence from Check Point’s installed base of security gateways," Hattar said.
