Bi-lingual cybercriminals

The geographical trends of malware

The United States

Once the launching pad of all malware, today malware in the US includes elements of malicious software found in other parts of the world. Attackers use increasingly clever social engineering skills to trick victims and are looking to exploit the viral nature of Web 2.0.

Europe

With 23 languages in the European Union alone, language barriers used to be a hurdle for miscreants. Today malware authors adapt the language to the Internet domain site where the scam message is being sent, and malicious websites serve up malware in a language determined by the country the target is located in.

China

A majority of the malware found in China is password-stealing Trojans designed to steal users’ identities in online games and their credentials for virtual currency accounts. China has also become a breeding ground for malware writers.

Japan

Winny, a popular peer-to-peer application in Japan, is prone to malware infestations that can cause serious data leaks. Unlike in most countries, malware authors in Japan are not motivated by money, instead authors seek to expose or delete sensitive data on machines.

Russia

Some of the most notorious attack toolkits are produced in Russia. These grey-market malware tools, combined with lack of legislation against cybercrime, lead experts to believe that the Russian mafia will soon – if they haven’t already – latch onto computer crime.