UK and US drop down virus source list

There was good news for US and UK security chiefs today with the latest stats from managed security firm Network Box showing that India and Russia have both leapfrogged them in the list of top virus sources.

India is now the world's single biggest producer of viruses, accounting for 13.74 per cent, while Russia comes next, producing just over 11 per cent. The US now accounts for just over eight per cent, an impressive decrease from 14.65 per cent last month.

The UK dropped down from fourth to seventh on the list.

However, there was bad news for the US in the spam list, with the latest stats showing it came out as number one source for worldwide spam, at just over 12 per cent. India came second with Brazil in third and the UK in fourth with five per cent.

The stats echo those form Symantec Hosted Services which last week declared the UK also in fourth place with around 4.5 per cent of the world's share of spam.

However, Network Box warned that the trends are unlikely to continue in the same vein next month, given the agility of cyber criminals.

"The country sources of these internet threats shifts each month, which shows how quickly internet criminals can move their operations round the world and launch attacks," said Network Box internet security analyst, Simon Heron.

"Businesses need to be vigilant and ensure they are not opening up the back door to a hacker when they use new applications or technologies."