South Korea accounts for third of the world's malware

Rapid rise of viruses from Asian nation.

Almost a third of global internet viruses are being sent from South Korea.

According to Network Box, in March it accounted for 31.1 per cent of the world's malware, a leap from February's 8.9 per cent. The US is the second most prolific producer of viruses, holding steady from February at 9.34 per cent, followed by Brazil at 6.04 per cent, China at 5.05 per cent and India at 3.86 per cent.

Simon Heron, internet security analyst at Network Box, claimed that it had seen a significant increase in phishing attacks originating from South Korea, and it was classifying phishing attacks as malware rather than spam – as the purpose and content of these emails are malicious.

Heron said: “The increase in compromised PCs sending out phishing in Korea in March means Korea dominates the virus league table. Note, however, that we include phishing in our virus stats which some companies do not. We've seen Korea increasing its malware production over the last few months but March has seen a concerted effort to increase the production of phishing attacks globally.”

See original article on scmagazineuk.com

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