India generates just 2.8 per cent of global spam

India is pretty low down on the totem pole for cyber crimes: way behind the malicious, crooked and cross-wired geeks in the US, China and Europe.

A research by US-based IT security and control firm SophosLabs shows that only 2.8 per cent of all spam or malware — software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system — comes out of India.

The US tops the chart with 19.8 per cent followed by China at 7.5 per cent. But the study also shows that China has overtaken the US in hosting Web pages that secretly install malicious programs on computers to steal private information or send spam e-mails.

Another report reveals that Europe produces more spam than any other continent. What all this shows is a loose confederacy of cyber criminals: a single cyber crime operation can now be distributed among different groups in several countries.

One may create a ‘botnet’; another rents those computers to send credit scam e-mails; a third party transfers funds using the fraudulently obtained banking information. Sometimes each operation is on a different continent.

There is no evidence yet of an emerging cyber mafia – an organised syndicate of cyber criminals but we could get there eventually.

Source: Telegraph