Symantec's new study highlights the fact that cybercriminals
are becoming increasingly more organized and trying hard to stay one-step ahead
of security agencies.
By Narayan Ammachchi, nearshore americas
Security software provider Symantec has found
that Brazil is the eighth-largest global source of malicious botnet
activity, according to the firm’s Internet Security Threat Report 2015.
The country is home to 2% of the world’s bots, which
are defined as private computers infected with malicious software and
controlled as a group without the owners’ knowledge.
Globally, China was the origin of much more bot activity in
2015, seeing a sharp rise of 84% in bot-related activity over the previous year.
In contrast, bot activity in the US has dropped 67% since 2014.
Although cybercrime is also a problem in Mexico, Uruguay,
Puerto Rico and Panama, the report shows that the threat rate is declining in
several countries. Successful law enforcement activity against
cybercriminals and heightened cybersecurity awareness are both contributing
factors to the decline of bots.
However, a similar study by BitSight Technologies
stated that Brazil and the US are finding it difficult to prevent and mitigate
machine compromises stemming from botnet infections. BitSight also said it
found Brazilian companies underperforming on metrics such as machine compromise
rates, email security and file-sharing practices.
Nearly 430 million new malware variants were discovered in
2015, up 36% from the previous year, suggesting that cybercriminals
around the world are becoming increasingly more organized and trying hard
to stay one step ahead of security agencies.
“Advanced criminal attack groups now echo the skill sets of
nation-state attackers. They have extensive resources and a highly-skilled
technical staff that operate with such efficiency that they maintain normal
business hours and even take the weekends and holidays off,” said Kevin
Haley, Director, Symantec Security Response.