India ranks Second in Cyber Attacks through Social Media

According to the report released by Symantec, the leading security solutions provider, India ranks second among the nations that were targeted with cyber attacks through social media in 2014, following the United States of America. As per the data India saw six per cent of the social media scams globally, marginally higher than the UK and Canada.

According to the report,

  • India ranks 2nd in social media scams
  • India ranked 3rd in Asia for ransomware attacks
  • India is 6th most bot-infected country
  • About 65% of bot infections reported in metro cities
  • Around 34% of cyber attacks in India were targeted at small businesses
  • Globally, 70% of social media crimes fooled users to manual sharing of scams

Ransomware, a kind of malicious software, encrypts files in a user’s computer and blocks access until the user pays a certain sum of money. Globally, ransomware attacks grew a staggering 113 per cent in 2014.
India reported the third highest ransomware in Asia, with an average of more than seven attacks every hour. The user has to pay between USD 300-500 to get access to computer files.

Symantec saw a drastic rise in the number of attacks on important sectors like financial services (17.1 per cent, up from 11.1 percent in 2013) and transportation and communications (4.4 per cent, up from 0.8 per cent in 2013). 

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