Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 24 February 2008 18:52
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 4
McAfee says that China is a country with more than 137 million computer users.
As a quarter of these users play online games, McAfee says that malware authors are cashing in on virtual goods, currency, and online games.
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, as a large number of skilled coders do not have legitimate work. The conditions have driven these hackers to cybercrime in search of money.
But China is not the only major Asian country with a malware problem, Japan is next on the list.
In the land of the rising sun, a a popular peer-to-peer application in use is called Winny, and it’s prone to malware infestations that can cause serious data leaks.
When deployed in the corporate setting, malware on Winny can expose data, steal passwords, and delete files. Unlike in most countries, malware authors in Japan are not motivated by money - instead authors seek to expose or delete sensitive data on machines.
Another common target in Japan is Ichitaro, a popular word processor. There have been several attacks against Ichitaro users that exploited unpatched security vulnerabilities to install spyware on the target machines. Where are the anti-malware ninjas when you need them?
Next stop: Russia - and information on the free and paid ways you can protect yourself! Please read onto page 4.
