Bangladesh among the most vulnerable to malware in Asia: Microsoft

Microsoft Asia on June 7, 2016 launched its Malware Infection Index 2016, which has found that Bangladesh is among the top three vulnerable countries at risk of malware threats. Image taken from the Microsoft report

The report identifies the key malware threats in the region and ranks markets in Asia Pacific according to how much they are affected.

Out of the top five locations across the globe most at risk of infection, a total of four are from the Asia Pacific — Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal, topping the rankings at first, second, third and fourth places respectively in terms of computers encountering malware.

Each country had an average of close to 40 percent or more computers encountering malware, compared to the worldwide average of only 20.8 percent, as of 4Q 2015, up from 17.6 percent in 1Q 2015.

The top three most encountered malware include Gamarue, a malicious computer worm that is commonly distributed via exploit kits and social engineering; and Skeeyah and Peals which are trojans that try to look innocent to convince you to install them.

These malware can steal users' personal information, download more malware, or give a malicious hacker access to the PC. The findings are based on data from the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) and the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIRv20).

In fact, the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Hunting team in April reported the discovery of a group of cybercriminals, dubbed PLATINUM, who have actively since 2009 been targeting governmental organisations, defense institutes, intelligence agencies, and telecommunication providers in South and Southeast Asia.