India ranked second globally for social media scams in 2014

BANGALORE, INDIA: India reported the third highest ransomware in Asia, an average of more than seven attacks every hour. Of these, 86 percent were crypto-ransomware–posing a threat to consumers and enterprises alike.

In its new study titled, Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume 20, Symantec reported 23 percent increase in total breaches in 2014 globally.

The financial services segment with 17 percent; up from 11.1 percent in 2013, topped the chart, followed by transportation and communications at 4.4 percent; up from .8 percent.

Last year, India moved up five places to become the 16th most bot infected country worldwide. However, despite higher security awareness; Last year, India moved up five places to become the 16th most bot infected country worldwide. However, despite higher security awareness, Mumbai, Bangalore, Cochin, Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi reported close to 65 percent of infections.

The small business saw more than two-fold increase in malware attacks. According to the Symantec survey, the attacks rose to 34 percent in 2014 as against 14percent in 2013.

Tarun Kaura, director, Technology Sales at Symantec, India, said, “Last year, India reported the second highest number of social media scams globally. Over 80 percent of these scams were shared manually, as attackers took advantage of people’s willingness to trust content shared by their friends."

In view of the fact that the software companies took an average of 59 days to create and roll out patches, attackers took advantage of the delay and, in the case of Heartbleed, leapt to exploit the vulnerability within four hours. There were 24 total zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in 2014, leaving an open playing field for attackers to exploit known security gaps before they were patched, Symantec noted.

The company shared the following best practices for enterprises and consumers to avoid malware attacks.

For businesses:

Don’t get caught flat-footed

Employ a strong security posture

Prepare for the worst

Provide ongoing education and training

For consumers:

Use strong passwords

Be cautious on social media

Know what you are sharing