In January, more than half (55.59 per cent) of all malware sent on email was an attempted phishing attack, but February has seen this figure drop dramatically to 17.86 per cent, according to analysis by managed security firm, Network Box.

Brazil, which had been dominating the virus charts in recent months, has fallen to third place behind the US and Korea after a drop of 8.87 per cent in viruses produced. Viruses originating from the US also dropped from 15.7 per cent in January to 9.31 per cent in February, but the US still tops the virus production charts.  The number of viruses coming from the UK has decreased by 0.37 per cent, but it has still moved up one place in the charts and is now the fifth largest source of viruses.

Viruses originating from Korea have dropped by 2.25 per cent.

Levels of spam originating from the top three countries have also fallen. The US is still the top source of spam, but spam distribution has decreased by 3.26 per cent from the 9.95 per cent in January. Both India and Brazil have seen a decline in spam levels, but Brazils has been steeper at 2.70 per cent, meaning that India is now the second highest source of spam at 5.13 per cent.

Simon Heron, internet security analyst at Network Box, says: “The post-Christmas decline in phishing attacks has arrived late this year. As the recent spate of spam and phishing scams on Twitter have shown, malware producers are always looking for new methods to hook the reader, whether by hiding behind a friends identity, or exploiting a recent hot news item, they will stop at nothing to get people to click on that link.”

Top Ten Viruses

Top Ten Trojans

Top Ten Intrusions

Top Ten Sources of Viruses

Top Ten Sources of Spam

For more information on security issues, see www.network-box.co.uk, or visit Simon Heron’s blog at: http://blog.network-box.co.uk/, or follow Simon on Twitter: http://twitter.com/networkbox.

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