Russia Supersedes US & China as Largest Malware Producer

Death of Russian Business Network does Little to Dent Russian
Malware Machine
SAN FRANCISCO--(Business Wire)--
Analysts at security vendor PC Tools today revealed that Russia
has superseded the US and China as the world's highest producer of
spyware and viruses, with Russia now accounting for 27.89% of malware
while China accounts for 26.52% and the US 9.98%.

The US has shifted down from second place to third, after Russia
and China in the malware chart.

Statistics generated using Threat Expert's automated threat
analysis system, Threat Expert (www.threatexpert.com) suggest that the
death of the notorious malware distributor the Russian Business
Network (RBN) has done little to curb malware production in the
country. Threat Expert has identified a substantial rise in malware
originating from Russia, overtaking the US and China for the first
time in over a year.

"The vacuum left by the RBN has been filled by other malware
distributors," said Sergei Shevchenko, Malware Research Analyst for PC
Tools, who likens Russian malware distributors' support of cyber-crime
to Russian mythology. "Russian mythology refers to a dragon-like
creature with three heads, called Zmey Gorynych that requires all
three heads to be severed to ensure its death," said Shevencko.

"The bottom line is that there are more viruses and spyware coming
out of Russia now than ever before and the complexity of this malware
is also increasing," said Shevencko. "The trend is to produce many
variants and flood networks as quickly as possible. The perpetrators
can then sit back and see what has landed and which machines will be
compromised."

Shevchenko said it is getting more difficult for security analysts
to track malware and the demise of RBN was not necessarily a good
thing.

"Like many malware researchers we bemoaned the demise of RBN
because at least when in existence we could monitor their activity.
Now we are seeing Russian malware hosting services being advertised
for servers in Malaysia, China, Panama, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey
and India with 'shadow' providers in the US making cyber-crime more
complicated to track."

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*T
The World Threat Chart

1. Russia - 27.89%
2. China - 26.52%
3. United States - 9.98%
4. Brazil - 6.77%
5. Ukraine - 5.45%
6. United Kingdom - 5.34%
7. France - 3.81%
8. Germany - 2.14%
9. Sweden - 1.6%
10. Spain - 1.37%
*T

See the Threat Expert world atlas here -
www.threatexpert.com/map.aspx.

Editor's Note:

The Russian Business Network was shut down in November last year.
It had a history of enabling cybercrime and was purported to also host
phishing sites and child pornography.
here

ABOUT THREAT EXPERT

Threat Expert was developed by the same team of professionals who
created PC Tools' flagship products, such as PC Tools Spyware Doctor,
PC Tools AntiVirus, Registry Mechanic, and many others.

ABOUT PC TOOLS

PC Tools is a global software leader with a cache of security and
utility products, including the multi award-winning Spyware Doctor. PC
Tools is an industry leader in real-time anti-spyware and has a number
of key patents pending.

The PC Tools Malware Research Centre monitors trends and emerging
spyware issues and provides security solutions for the consumer and
enterprise marketplace. The company is headquartered in Sydney, with
offices in San Francisco, London, Shannon (Ireland), Melbourne, Kiev,
and Boulder. PC Tools has a global network of distributors, resellers,
and retailers.

PC Tools & Threat Expert
Magida Ezzat, +1-347-515-9622
Marketing Communications Manager
magida@pctools.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008