The US has been named and shamed as the nation that hosted more malicious
code and relayed more spam than any other during 2006.
According to the Sophos Security Threat Report 2007, the US internet industry
remains plagued by criminal activity despite continued efforts to clamp down on
cyber-crime.
"Too many US-hosted websites still have lax security measures in place,"
said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at
Sophos.
"Given the effectiveness of web-based attacks, web hosting companies in the
US and elsewhere need to step up their policing of published content, and ensure
that malicious code is quickly removed before innocent users get hit."
The UK ranked 19 in the chart, responsible for hosting 0.5 per cent of all
websites containing malicious code.
The US also topped the list of worst spam-relaying nations. While the US has
made good progress in this area, there was still more spam sent from US
computers in 2006 than from any other single nation.
Sophos noted that up to 90 per cent of all spam is now relayed from zombie
computers hijacked by Trojan horses, worms and viruses and under the control of
hackers.
This means that they do not need to be based in the same country as the
computers being used to send the spam.
The report also found that the most prolific email threats during 2006 were
the Mytob, Netsky, Sober and Zafi families of worms, which together accounted
for more than 75 per cent of all infected email.
However, Sophos predicts that 2007 is likely to see a significant shift away
from the use of email, as cyber-criminals look to exploit the continued global
growth in web use, as well as user-defined web content.
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