Cyber threat cases soared by 314% in India during Christmas

Mumbai: A recently released study using aggregated data from Surfshark Antivirus shows that every 50th scan finds at least one threat. As the festive season shopping is picking up, cyber threat cases soared by 314.42% in India during the week leading up to Christmas. India had a threat rate of 24 threats per 100 scan cycles. In the past two months, the most common threats in India have been trojan and heuristic.

“The holiday shopping season leading up to Christmas is not only beneficial for the retailers but cybercriminals too. People searching for gifts and deals online during the period of huge discounts are more likely to click on suspicious links, download malicious files, and infect their devices,” said Nedas Kazlauskas, Antivirus Product Owner at Surfshark.

India experienced a 314% cyber threat rate increase during the week to Christmas. The five countries that suffered the highest threat rate spikes during this time (week-over-week) were Portugal (610%), Thailand (244%), India (314%), Lithuania (185%), and Chile (1307%).

Europe has been the most affected region over the last couple of months
Aggregated monthly data from Surfshark Antivirus shows that India is the 10th country by threat rate in Asia Pacific since the start of the monitoring period from mid-October up to Christmas. On average, 13 threats are found per 100 scans in Asia Pacific. It is 0% less than the global average. Globally, Europe is the most affected region by cyber threats (25% more than the global average).

Most common cyber threats since mid-October
The most common threat types identified and flagged during Surfsharks’ Antivirus scans are riskware (44.1% of all threats), heuristic 13.3%) and trojan (9%). Since October 17th, the latest weekly global scans show that on average10 Riskware threats were found per 100 scans.

Some malware (viruses, trojans, worms, etc.) tend to multiply once they’ve infiltrated and infected a device and could cause damage to files, personal data, and operating software. The most likely malware type to be found in bundles is viruses. 33% of scans that detect viruses will detect more than 50 of them.

Two of the most common cyber threat categories are malware and riskware. Riskware is a program made without malicious intent but has security vulnerabilities that give it the potential to become malware. Malware is any software, product, or program created or installed onto a computer to cause harm.

Hackers use malware to corrupt or delete files, steal money and personal data, copy passwords, or take control of specific programs. The most common ways malware is spread are phishing emails, corrupt attachments, suspicious downloads, unfamiliar links, and malicious websites. Malware comes in various types, such as viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, bots, and more. TechHerald