Kaspersky Lab: 40% of Eastern Europe infected with malware

Analysis

Moscow-based international anti-virus, online security and cybercrime expert Kaspersky Lab kicked off its annual Security Analyst Summit in Budapest on Tuesday. Focusing on the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, the summit is being held in Hungary as the country is one of the safest in terms of online security, according to Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis team statistics show that the company currently has over 300 million users worldwide, serves about 200 nations and employs “thousands” of workers.
In terms of malware, Sergey Novikov, Deputy Director of Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis team, said that in 1994 there was one new virus a day, but in 2014 there are 315,000 unique malicious files detected every day by Kaspersky Lab.

“Cybercrime can be divided into layers,” said Novikov today. “The majority of cybercrime is about stealing money and identity, while there will also be a significant growth in economic cyber-crime. At the top of the pyramid is state versus state attacks. The internet is still the number one source of threats, with more than 40% of Eastern Europe infected.”

For infection levels in Africa, South Africa is currently at about 33%, while the vast majority of the African continent is between 42% and 55%.

Novikov explained in his opening keynote address that the biggest culprit in terms of vulnerability is Oracle’s Java. He said that if users don’t update their software when prompted by Oracle, cyber criminals exploit Java in more than 90% of the cases, while Internet Explorer is a distant second and is responsible for about 1% of breaches.

However, mobile phones still – and always will – pose the biggest threat, according to Novikov: “New mobile samples of malware are increasing exponentially and Android systems are still the most vulnerable with 99% of the attacks targeted toward it.”

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