(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Kaspersky Lab has stated that Oman generates the least spam traffic in the Middle East. ''Oman was a source for only 0.00083 per cent of the global spam traffic in Q1 2014,'' said Darya Gudkova, head of Content Analysis & Research Department at Kaspersky Lab, in an e-mailed reply to Muscat Daily.
It stated that worldwide China (21.93 per cent), followed by the US (18.81 per cent) remained the most active spam distributors in Q1 2014.
While Asia remained the leading source of spam by region, spreading 54.31 per cent of all spam worldwide, Middle East countries generated 2.37 per cent of the global spam, as compared to two per cent last year.
''The share of spam created in Oman is low both on the global scale and in the region,'' said Darya, adding, ''Interestingly, it is mostly targeting not local or regional users, but those in the former USSR countries.''
Saudi Arabia topped GCC countries in contributing to spam traffic with 0.35 per cent, followed by UAE with 0.17 per cent. ''Kuwait (0.13 per cent) is followed by Bahrain (0.02 per cent) and Qatar with 0.009 per cent,'' she said, adding, the least in the region was Oman with 0.00083 per cent.
Trojan-Spy.html.Fraud.gen remained the most widespread malicious programme in e-mail traffic globally. ''In Oman, we can name Backdoor.Win32.Androm.blkj as the most malicious programme in spam lately. Androm family includes backdoors that allow cybercriminals to secretly manage the infected device,'' she said.
She added that often computers infected by such malware become a part of a botnet. ''The most popular malware in the whole Middle East region in the first quarter of 2014 was Dropper.Win32.Dapato.dkrs Trojan, mostly distributed in the UAE.''
The percentage of spam in total e-mail traffic during the first quarter this year came to 66.34 per cent, down 6.42 percentage points from the previous quarter. However, compared with the same period of Q1 2013, the share of spam in Q1 2014 barely changed, falling by only 0.16 per cent.
In the first quarter of 2014, spammers started imitating messages from mobile applications WhatsApp, Viber and Google Hangouts. ''Recently, we have seen a growth in the number of attacks targeting mobile users. Gadgets have become popular even among those who had little interaction with computers and are less familiar with computer security. This opens up new vectors of attacks for spammers and phishers,'' said Darya.
In addition, spammers have been exploring the possibilities of legal services and using them to bypass spam filtering. ''The actual address to which the malicious link leads is masked by two legal methods at once. Firstly, the spammers used the Yahoo URL shortening service and then processed the subsequent link through Google Translate.''
Kaspersky Lab reminds users not to click the links in e-mails, even if the sender appears to be someone you know. ''It is much safer to enter the address in the browser manually,'' she said.
Middle Eastern countries' share in the global spam level
Turkey 0.54777%
Saudi Arabia 0.35170%
UAE 0.17453%
Kuwait 0.12546%
Lebanon 0.07534%
Bahrain 0.01925%
Egypt 0.01812%
Qatar 0.00991%
Yemen 0.00126%
Oman 0.00083%
(Source:
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.