Symantec has released the latest version of its EMEA Internet Security Threat Report.
Symantec has used more than 40,000 sensors monitoring network activity in over 180 countries, and gathered malicious code reports from more than 120 million client, server and gateway systems worldwide. Effectively, if you have deployed Symantec anti-virus, you and your organization have probably contributed information to this report.
The report states that the UK was the most frequently targeted country in the EMEA region for denial of service (DoS) attacks, with almost half of all EMEA DoS attacks (46%) launched against UK computer systems. In other security areas, the report highlights which countries had the highest levels of bot-infected computers, with Germany coming out on top. At city level, Madrid was the most bot-infected.
Unsurprisingly, because of its levels of bot infection, Germany accounted for the highest percentage of malicious activity in EMEA (19% of the total), and Israel suffered from the most malicious activity per internet user. Again, in the areas of phishing and spam, Germany was in the unwanted top spot. It played host to the highest percentage of phishing websites (22%) and the city of Karlsruhe was the worst offending locality. Germany also had more spam zombies than any other EMEA country (17%).
However, the UK was the source of more spam than any other country, providing 12% of the overall EMEA total. The UK also had the highest potential for infection from back door attacks and Trojans. Across the region, on average, around 67% of all email postings were classified by Symantec as spam, and in Poland, the rate jumps to a massive 86%.
Symantec’s EMEA Internet Security Threat Report provides a comprehensive overview of internet threat activity as it affects business and individual computer users across the EMEA region, and should be seen as recommended reading for all computer staff that have an interest in IT security.
Source: OpinionWire by Butler Group (www.butlergroup.com)
