Facts about Viruses


Symantec just released a highly in-depth report about the state of the antivirus industry, and frankly I find it fascinating. Here are a few tidbits:
  • Shaoxing, China was malware capital of the world last month.
  • According to the company’s research, nearly 30 percent of all malicious attacks came from China
  • The most common file types attached to all malicious emails were .XLS and .DOC.
  • The most dangerous file type was encrypted .RAR files.
  • .XLS and .DOC each accounted for 15.4 percent of file attachments.
  • The top four most common file types (.XLS, .DOC, .ZIP and .PDF) accounted for 50 percent of attached files.
  • Despite being just 0.32 percent of attached files, .RAR files were compromised 96.8 percent of the time.
  • .EXE files were compromised just 15 percent of the time.
  • At 95.7 percent, Hungary was the most spammed country in March 2010.
  • At 1 in 90.9 emails, Taiwan was the most targeted country for email-borne malware in March.
  • At 1 in 254.8 e-mails, Britain was the most active country for phishing attacks in March.
So watch out for those XLS, DOC, and RAR attachmenets in your email, folks! If you're emailing your lists it might be a good idea to send PDF's and ZIP files instead.

read full PDF REPORT.

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