Jordan is among the countries where computers are at a moderate risk to become infected with malware via the Internet, according to a report by a Russian cyber security company.
The Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2013, issued recently by Russian Kaspersky Lab, showed that Jordan was classified as a high risk country in terms of local malware infections.
The study, e-mailed to The Jordan Times measures the rate of computer infections based on scans of computers, USB flash drives, camera and phone memory cards, and external hard drives.
In terms of local malware infection, Jordan fared better than Iraq and Algeria, which were classified as maximum risk countries.
Malware is a type of software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems.
In terms of the possibility of computers becoming infected through the Internet, Jordan was classified better than Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Iraq, which were classified as high risk countries, according to the report.
Internet penetration in Jordan reached 72 per cent by the end of September 2013, with about 4.8 million users, according to figures released by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.
According to the report, Kazakhstan topped the list of countries with the highest risk of computer infection via the Internet and was followed by Armenia, Russia, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine.
The top five countries where users face the highest risk of local infection are Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia and India.
The report said the number of computer users prone to be victims of malware is on the rise globally, as 315,000 new malicious files are detected every day.
The overall global Internet threat level grew by 6.9 percentage points in 2013, with 41.6 per cent of computers around the world attacked, the report said.
The US and Russia are the leading hosts of malicious web sources, according to the study, which said that this year also saw a further increase in security issues on mobile phones, with threats rising in number and sophistication.
Most malicious mobile apps principally aimed to steal money and subsequently personal data, according to the bulletin.
Android is still the main target, attracting 98.05 per cent of known malware.
Kaspersky Lab detected 104,427 new modifications of malicious programmes for mobile devices, which is 125 per cent more than in 2012
In terms of top malicious programmes involved in web attacks on users’ computers, Malicious URL topped the list and was followed by Trojan.Script.Generic, AdWare.Win32.MegaSearch.am, Trojan.Script.Iframer and Exploit.Script.Blocker.
