China, Brazil and Korea taking on ‘greater significance’ in battle against cyber crime, says Network Box

Published 5th January 2009

30 December 2008 - China is fast becoming the world’s greatest source of viruses and spam, according to analysis of security threats in December by managed security firm, Network Box. China is the single biggest source of viruses, accounting for nearly 12 per cent (11.8 per cent) of the world’s viruses. It accounts for 10.7 per cent of the world’s spam, only just beaten by the US, which is responsible for 11.5 per cent.

This is a significant shift from just two months ago, when the US accounted for 26.5 per cent of all viruses (against China’s 9.9 per cent), and 15.4 per cent of spam (against China’s 5.5 per cent), in October.

Simon Heron, Internet Security Analyst at Network Box says: “As broadband is taken up in countries like China, Brazil, Korea and even India, it is inevitable that they will have infected systems. Given the take up and the population, these countries will become increasingly significant as sources of malware.”

Korea now accounts for just over eight per cent of the world’s viruses (up from 6.3 per cent in November), and a massive 29.2 per cent of intrusion attacks – although this is down slightly from November, when it was responsible for nearly 35 per cent of intrusions.

Brazil is creeping up the charts, too – it is now responsible for 5.2 per cent of all viruses, up from 3.4 per cent in November and 2.1 per cent in October.

India has appeared in the list of the top 10 sources of spam for the first time this year, accounting for 2.6 per cent of all spam.


Top Ten Sources of Viruses

Country Daily Average %
1. China 11.82464
2. US 9.93870
3. Australia 9.04110
4. Korea 8.07745
5. Brazil 5.21436
6. UK 4.08097
7. Turkey 3.22594
8. Poland 3.05151
9. Russia 2.44027
10. Italy 2.30490


Top Ten Sources of Spam

Country Daily Average %
1. US 11.51000
2. China 10.70523
3. Australia 7.98358
4. Brazil 6.71009
5. Korea 5.06697
6. Turkey 4.15442
7. Spain 3.77909
8. UK 3.59352
9. Poland 3.12905
10. India 2.64487


Top Ten Sources of Intrusions

Country Daily Average %
1. Korea 29.28694
2. US 13.81912
3. UK 6.83416
4. Malaysia 5.24036
5. Australia 4.71376
6. Hong Kong 4.51446
7. China 4.50382
8. Brazil 3.51266
9. Turkey 1.77454
10. Poland 1.47067


Top Ten Viruses

Threat Name Daily Average %
1. spam.phish.url 56.29298
2. nbh-bscript 11.40697
3. can-2003-0161 4.52639
4. trojan-spy.html.fraud.gen 2.96216
5. virus.win32.virut.a 2.05266
6. clm.html.phishing.pay-36 1.35777
7. net-worm.win32.mytob.c 1.09058
8. trojan.win32.fraudpack.hes 0.82170
9. trojan-spy.win32.zbot.gxn 0.82121
10. clm.html.phishing.bank-72 0.72421


Top Ten Trojans

Threat Name Daily Average %
1. trojan-spy.html.fraud.gen 0.03217
2. trojan-spy.win32.zbot.gxn 0.01330
3. trojan.win32.fraudpack.hes 0.00717
4. trojan-mailfinder.win32.agent.we 0.00348
5. trojan-dropper.win32.agent.aarg 0.00199
6. trojan-spy.win32.zbot.hth 0.00136
7. trojan.win32.fraudpack.hsq 0.00131
8. trojan-downloader.win32.injecter.bca 0.00119
9. trojan-downloader.win32.injecter.ga 0.00103
10. trojan-downloader.win32.agent.asiv 0.00082


Top Ten Intrusions

Threat Name Daily Average %
1. NETBIOS 28.42724
2. BOGON 9.29743
3. PINGFLOOD 6.73361
4. HTTP-S-WEBDAV 0.02883
5. ICMP 0.01199
6. HTTP-S-WEBDEX 0.00990
7. SOBIG-F 0.00701
8. HTTP-S-NIMDA 0.00293
9. HTTP-S-UNIXATTACK 0.00254
10. HTTP-S-CODERED 0.00088


About Network Box:
Network Box Limited (NBL) is an international managed security services company, specialising in unified threat management (UTM). It continuously defends the networks of its customers using PUSH technology to instantaneously update protection, from 12 Security Operations Centres spread around the globe. NBL’s customers in Asia, Australia, North America and Europe include companies such as BMW, Nintendo and Toyota, as well as banks, utilities companies and government organisations.

For more information, see www.network-box.co.uk / www.network-box.com.