India Becomes Top Source Of Spam In the World In Q3'11

India has become the top spam-sending nation in the world, according to the latest report by IT security company Trend Micro for the third quarter ended September 30, 2011.

India accounted for 12 per cent of all SPAM sent followed by South Korea (at 9 per cent). These countries pipped USA, that has traditionally topped the list of countries behind SPAMs, and incidentally, US dropped out of the top 10 list too in Q3.

Meanwhile, Google replaced Microsoft as the software vendor with the greatest number of reported vulnerabilities for the quarter—82 due to the increasing number of vulnerabilities in Chrome. Oracle was ranked second with 63 vulnerabilities while Microsoft fell to third place with 58 vulnerabilities.

"We also witnessed a significant shift in terms of cybercriminal attack targets. The attacks have changed from being massive in nature—those aimed at affecting as many users as possible, to targeted, particularly those against large enterprises and government institutions. Research conducted by Trend Micro researchers on these attacks led them to the discovery of one of the most notable groups behind targeted attacks in the third quarter— the LURID downloader," said Amit Nath, country manager India and SAARC Trend Micro.

He added, "Attacks against well-known platforms such as mobile devices and social networks ensued. A new DreamDroidLight variant with enhanced capabilities and routines was also spotted in the third quarter. In addition, attacks targeting Facebook and Google+ led users to scams and malicious file downloads."