New Delhi emerges as the top malicious city in 2014

Sality, Ramnit, Trogan.LNK.Gen, Trogan.Script and Virtob are the top five malicious family detections and Delhi (20%), Hyderabad (9%), Chennai (9%) and Chandigarh (7%) were the top malicious cities in 2014, according to the detections from the “The state of Internet in India” Report, unveiled by F-Secure. The report affirms the rise of malware infections in the country and states Delhi as the most infected city in 2014.

The report also states that banking-related malware has been consistently topping the chart in India. The “Ramnit” malware steals bank user names and passwords and it mostly spreads through USB removable drives. Furthermore, PCs in India are moving away from Windows XP. Downadup/Conficker infection is also on the decline over the past three years in India.

Commenting during a press meet to announce these findings, Pekka Usva, Vice-President, Corporate Security, F-Secure, said, “Malware trends and the state of mobile threat landscape places cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Chennai straight as the focal point of the attackers. Despite the decline of Downadup/Conficker, infections like Sality, Ramnit and Virtob have continued to mark their presence in the Indian threat landscape over the period of last three years. 2014 has highlighted many threats and F-Secure has timely highlighted them to keep its existing and prospective users safe.”

On the mobile front, premium rate SMS is still the No. 1 reason behind a high number of SMS-related malware in the Android platform in India. This is in line with what the CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team of India) found in December 2014. The mobile malwares are capable of collecting API key, Application ID, Carrier, Device manufacturer, Device model, GPS location, International Mobile, Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, Network operator, Package name and SDK version from your device. Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Chennai and Gurgaon have emerged as the top mobile infected cities in 2014.