BANGALORE, INDIA: While stringent norms for domain registrations initiated in several countries in APJ region, including China, has helped in controlling Internet based malicious activities, the absence of similar norms in India seems to have crediting the country with a slot in the infamous list of countries with most web-based malicious activities.

The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR) XV has revealed this shocking truth about the clandestine Web based activities in India which were even rubbished just a few years ago. According to the report, India has hopped to 5th position in the list of countries with top Malicious activity.

The list is topped by US, followed by China, Brazil and Germany.

India's jump to the infamous list can be considered as a sort of great leap considering the fact that it held the 11th position just in 2008. Further, the country has also been identified in the third place among the top countries where Web-based attacks originate.

In 2009, India accounted for 15 percent of all malicious activity in the APJ region, an increase from 10 percent registered in 2008. Further, 19 percent of the attacks targeting PC users in India originated from India itself in 2009. The data indicates the rise of attacks from India, said Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Symantec India on the launch onf the India Edition of the ISTR.

Web-based attacks from India accounts to four percent of the world total in 2009, a two percent increase from 2008. The two percent increase in attacks from India takes the country to third position in the list of countries from where Web-based attacks originate, according Dhupar who added that India stood 13th in the same list in 2008.

Bot Activity

The Symantec report notes that India had and average of 788 bots per day and 62,623 distinct bot-infected computers in 2009. The Bot activity is highest in Mumbai accounting to 50 percent (37 percent in 2008). The bot activity is second highest in Delhi accounting to 13 percent. However, the bot activity has remained constant in the IT capital (Bangalore) where the number stood at six percent.

The reason from increasing malicious activity and bot is the increasing penetration of broadband. The higher bot activity in Mumbai can be attributed to the cities status as a financial hub and presence of lot of confidential data. The reason for lesser bot activity in the IT capital may be due to the presence of well protected systems in IT and telecom industries, Dhupar noted.

According to the report,Symantec had observed an average of 10,440 active bots per day in the APJ region. This is an 11 percent decrease from 2009.

Malicious Code Trends

India ranked 1st in APJ and 2nd globally from malicious code. Only the United States had more malicious code than India. Increase in worms and propagation through remotely exploitable vulnerabilities primarily due to Conficker. Trojans made up 56 percent of the volume of the top 50 malicious code samples reported in 2009, a decrease from 68 percent in 2008.

Further, the  ISTR notes that India had the highest number of potential worm infections in the APJ region in 2009, which is unchanged from 2008.

Spam Trends

In 2009, spam accounted from 88 percent of all email messages observed by Symantec. India was the third-highest spam originating country in the world and the first in APJ.

Phishing Trends

In 2009, Symantec detected 59,526 phishing hosts, an increase of 7 percent over 2008 when Symantec detected 55,389 phishing hosts. Of the phishing URLs identified in India in 2009, 91 percent targeted the financial services sector. The ISTR adds that one percent of the world phishing hosts and sever percent of the regional phishing were in India, the Symantec report said.