A recent report by Finnish security firm F-Secure reveals that New Delhi houses the maximum number of malware-infected PCs in the country.
The report, titled "The state of Internet in India" for 2014, states India's capital city is most susceptible to such risks and has the maximum number of malware-infected computers and mobile phones.
"New Delhi becomes the top malicious city, meaning the ability of hackers to attack corporates as well as individual users is highest here compared to other cities in the country," said Amit Nath, country manager (India and SAARC) at F-Secure.
However, F-Secure has confirmed that it is now in discussions with state governments, including Delhi, on the role that it can play in offering secured Wi-Fi access across hotspots located in various cities.
"Governments are looking at offering free Wi-Fi across cities like Delhi and Chandigarh. As more cities adopt Wi-Fi, government has to be careful as public Wi-Fi can be misused by cybercriminals," Nath added. This is after the report showed that Delhi recorded 20 per cent PC malware infections in 2014, followed by Hyderabad and Chandigarh at 9 per cent each.
He added that the company is in negotiations to figure out how its solutions can be implemented at these Wi-Fi hotspots to protect end-consumers with a sustainable returns model built around it. Nath, however, declined to give further details on the talks.
The report added that the top malware infection in India still remains to be 'Botnet' related. This is where hackers manage to take control of the user's computer and uses it to spam, carry out DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks or other such malevolent activities to make money.
"Also, banking related malware has been consistently topping the chart in India. The 'Ramnit' malware, which steals bank user names and passwords and mostly spreads through USB removable drives, along with Sality, Trogan.LNK.Gen, Trogan.Script and Virtob were the top 5 malicious family detections in India," F-Secure Security Advisor Asia Su Gim Goh said.
And as we all know, malware is a serious threat. Mobile malware is capable of accessing personal information, including GPS location, IMET number and network operator details. Most phones, the report has suggested, were infected due to the premium rate SMS-related malware that easily attack Android devices.
Stay tuned for more updates!
