Symantec serves up daily dose of cybercrime

Beverley Head
Thursday, 17 February 2011 06:00

Business IT - Security

Symantec wants internet users to check its newly launched Cybercrime Index every morning - to make sure they steer clear of the latest net nasties.

In the same way as you might check the All Ords to see how your shares are doing, or the UV Index to see if and when you need to slip slop slap, the Norton Cybercrime Index will provide a quick snapshot of the risks of going online according to the company. According to David Hall, Symantec's consumer spokesperson for Asia, two out of three people now experience cybercrime and the Index is intended to offer more information to people about online risks as they arise.

Updated daily the index tracks the current risks - so for example on the day iTWire interviewed Mr Hall the index sat at 85 which was eight points lower than the day before. The free web based tool provides what Mr Hall described as 'actionable data' in that it names the current dirtiest web sites and identifies the riskiest search terms of the day.

To generate the Index Symantec analyses information gathered from 130 million servers and 240,000 sensors around the world which it uses to spot cyber attacks. It has also partnered with ID Analytics to try to provide a measure of how exposed people are to the risk of identity theft.

'I would like to think that just like I check the social networking sites when I'm making my coffee, people would briefly glance at this and make changes to their behaviour once armed with the truth,' said Mr Hall.

However the Index is a global index - and doesn't provide real granularity about what is happening in Australia. So for example on the day iTWire first saw the Index a Pakistani music site was listed as one of the dirtiest web sites to visit - but for Australians there might be other risky local sites which won't be shown simply because of the lower volumes of traffic.

Symantec has also announced version 5 of its Norton 360 product which is expected to be available in retail stores from around the end of the month.