Malware Infection Rate by Country – Who has the most Viruses?

Ever wonder what the world virus infection rate is? Or how your country stands in protecting their system from viruses? Well, look no further than BitDefender’s Real Time Virus Reports at MalwareCity.com.

Setting the sample rate to 7 days and you find that:

• US sits at a 58%
• UK – 55.05%
• India – 62.53%
• Russia – 83.92%
• Germany – 34.13%
• Italy – 35.55%

Iran takes the prize as most infected, 97.95% of systems scanned had malware!

Okay, a look at the top viruses for each country shows a lot of cookie based viruses. Which may or may not be real viruses, but the rates are high none the less.

But how does this compare to what other vendors are finding?

According to the latest Panda Labs virus report, the countries that had the most viruses for the 3rd Quarter of 2011 are:

And the least infected countries for Q3 2011:

That is a lot of infected machines. You have to wonder how many of those systems are infected with Bot malware, credential stealing viruses or backdoor trojans.

Always install your operating system and application software updates, keep your anti-virus up to date, use a firewall and a script blocking program like NoScript.

Online Shopping Tips for a Cyber Crime Free Holiday Season

Just another reminder to shop safely this holiday season. Today the Department of Justice announced that it has seized 150 websites that were peddling counterfeit goods.

“For most, the holidays represent a season of good will and giving, but for these criminals, it’s the season to lure in unsuspecting holiday shoppers,” ICE director John Morton said in a statement about the seizure.”

According to Reuters.com the websites included pumaoutlets.net, myjerseyshop.com,  and uggbootsclearanceoutletstores.com.

Cyber Crime is huge business right now, but here are a few steps you can take to protect yourself:

1. It is usually safest to buy from large well known websites. Always make sure that their website name is spelled correctly. Most browsers will automatically highlight the domain name in the link so you can check this. See picture below:

2. Always make sure that the website is using SSL – secure communications when you get to the actual ordering process. The website should switch to secure HTTPS:// instead of just the regular HTTP://, and will look like this:

3. Do not click on links in e-mails that redirect you to a store. It is a common practice for hackers to create e-mails that look legit that link to a counterfeit or malicious servers. Just go directly to the store, you should be able to find any public sales listed there.

4. Beware of horribly misspelled and un-formatted e-mails supposedly from foundations, or organizations. Most SPAM guards catch these now, but don’t spend time on these, just trash them.

5. If a deal is too good to be true, it just might be! Common sense goes a long way in protecting you from online scams.

6. Use strong passwords on your online accounts. A long combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols is best.

7. And finally, avoid using bank Visa cards that tie directly to your bank account online if you can. Use gift cards, limited value credit cards, or cards that have one time use virtual numbers or shop safe features. Even standard credit cards can have better safeguards and refund policies than a bank card. When in doubt ask your bank about it’s credit card policies.

Surf safely and have a great Holiday!

Iran Adds Three More Submarines to Fleet

Iran has added three more Ghadir class coastal running submarines to its Navy.

“All parts of these submarines, including their body and their advanced radar equipment and defense systems have been designed and manufactured by our country’s defense experts and with the help of the Defense Ministry,” said Iranian Army Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari at a press conference on Saturday.

They just added four a year ago:

Sayyari also said Saturday that Iran’s naval patrol time has increased from 15 to 90 days, and that they have the capability to build an aircraft carrier.

AT&T Hackers Funded Pakistan Terrorist Group that Struck India

Four hackers have been arrested in the Philippines that funded a terrorist group possibly linked to the deadly 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. According to a Foxnews article, the Philippine Criminal Investigation and Detection Group working with the FBI arrested the 4 suspects late Thursday. The suspects allegedly stole 2 million from AT&T according to the CIDG.

“The hackers were working on commission for a terrorist group linked to Muhammad Zamir, according to the Philippine police. Zamir, a Pakistani, was arrested in Italy in 2007, where he was running a call center and allegedly buying information from Filipino hackers.”

Though not mentioned by name, the group that allegedly was to receive the stolen funds was the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

A later article today on Reuters.com states that AT&T denies that it was hacked and that it only assisted law enforcement with the investigation:

“AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, said it “ended up writing off some fraudulent charges that appeared on customer bills” but did not comment on the $2 million figure.

“AT&T and its network were neither targeted nor breached by the hackers,” AT&T spokeswoman Jan Rasmussen said. “AT&T only assisted law enforcement in the investigation that led to the arrest of a group of hackers.”

It is alarming how many times Pakistan’s name comes up when terrorism is involved. Not to long ago, Osama Bin Laden was taken out by American special forces in his hideout that was near a Pakistan military base. One has to wonder just how strong an ally they really are in the war against terror.