US Leads The World In Malicious Computer Activity

from the we're-number-1!-we're-number-1! dept

Mon, Mar 19th 2007 2:55pm — Carlo Longino

Not that it's really anything to gloat about, but a new report from Symantec says that more malicious computer activity (spam, identity theft, phishing, hacking and so on) comes from the United States than anywhere else. About a third of such attacks come from the USA, followed by China with 10% and Germany with 7%. The methodology doesn't appear too comprehensive, since it's just built from data sent back by users of Symantec anti-virus software, but the report did turn up some other interesting tidbits. Perhaps the most attention-grabbing is that the paper's authors say that a person's complete identity -- birthdate, bank account, credit card and ID numbers -- can be had for as little as $14. That's actually pretty shocking, if true, since the amount of damage that can be done with that information is particularly high. If identity and financial information truly is available so easily and cheaply, it would indicate that the problem of identity theft is going to get much, much worse before it gets any better.

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13 Comments

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Javarod, 19 Mar 2007 @ 3:32pm

The price really doesn't surprise me, laws of supply and demand and all that, look at how many IDs have been stolen. While it isn't a glut, it does mean that a good quality identity is readily available from many sources, and that will always force the price down.
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what a joke, 19 Mar 2007 @ 3:49pm

symantec
sure!? is this the same symantec displaying an ad on the right side of my screen. you better listen to them, go buy their software. how many times have i been a victim to malicious computer activity, none. do con artists and businesses exist to take your money, yes. i know the only truth in this article is that spam in the us is out of control! by the way i run antivir software for 'malicious computer activity', and its free, thank you germany!
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Rick, 19 Mar 2007 @ 4:00pm

:o It's "Malicious"
Doesn't surprise me much, Americans are suckers.

BTW, title is missing an 'i' :p
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dorpus, 19 Mar 2007 @ 5:13pm

Definition of "malicious"?
They seem to define it as strangers taking your money. What about stalking and defamation, which is a lot more prevalent in East Asia? Accusing specific people of having AIDS, being a pedophile, whatever, is a lot more common over there.
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Mar 2007 @ 7:02pm
  
  Re: Definition of "malicious"?
  Dorpus is a paedophile and he has AIDS. Beware the diseased pervert and shoot him on sight.
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Matt, 19 Mar 2007 @ 5:13pm

Is this surprising?
...I would guess that the most computer activity in general comes from the U.S. Assuming that people in the United States aren't more inherently evil than people in other countries, it's not really too surprising that the most malicious activity comes from here.
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anon, 19 Mar 2007 @ 5:41pm

If we killed the people responsible for such atrocities with NO trial (the IP/MAC trail is all the evidence needed), this problem would stop. Real quick. It should be considered an act of war for a country not to extradite such scum to the US for punishment. We need to invade said countries with our full military strength and seize any means necessary to kill the fuckers.
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Mar 2007 @ 5:47pm
  
  Re:
  Shh. Don't give Bush any ideas.
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ron Larson (profile), 19 Mar 2007 @ 6:07pm

Stats usually lie
I think what this is saying is that there are more zombie bots on US computers. That simply means that there are simply more dumb computer owners in the US who have allowed their computers to get infected and then used as a zombie.

The actual bot masters are probably outside of the US.
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Dave Barnes, 19 Mar 2007 @ 9:06pm

We are #1
It is good that we are number 1 in yet another category.
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CB, 19 Mar 2007 @ 9:43pm

Flawed study
Is Symantec anti-virus software used in the same percentages across countries? And Germany's 7% is disproportionate to their smaller population size.

"Doesn't surprise me much, Americans are suckers."

This would suggest Chinese are:

"Twenty-six percent of the world's bot-infected computers were in China, a higher percentage than any other country."
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Shohat, 20 Mar 2007 @ 12:33am

Ahem
There is no identity theft problem . There simply is none.
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|333173|3|_||3, 21 Mar 2007 @ 5:37am

Real fake Id
where I am, if you can make a fake secondary student card and print out a few froged documents, you cn get a lerners permit. Witht his you can get a bank account. With a bank statement and a learner's permit, you have enough ID for most things, whith the benefit of thier being genuine items with a real history, and all for a $20 fake ID.

Maybe the proportion of bot-infected computers per computer would be a better indication of the number of suckers in a country.
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