Assault on PCs reaches plague proportions in Hong Kong as malicious code writers switch focus
A stealth digital invasion of personal computers around the world has intensified, with schools, small businesses and financial services firms hit by waves of botnet, spam, spyware, phishing and virus attacks in the first half of this year.
The latest edition of Symantec's bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report found malicious code attacks shifting from large, multipurpose offensives to focused incursions on smaller targets, using networks of compromised or zombie personal computers called botnets.
The report named Seoul, Beijing, Taipei, Guangzhou and Hong Kong as cities with the most bot-infected computers in Asia.
With links to criminal organisations, spammers and virus writers are collaborating to create botnets to launch spam, phishing and other malicious programs for profit. Several bot programs are covertly installed on many vulnerable internet-connected computers by attackers who remotely target new system weaknesses and add more botnets.
'Bot networks are also a source of income because they are available for purchase or rent,' said Steven Leonard, Symantec vice-president for Asia-Pacific and Japan.