Cyber attackers bank on Indian BFSI

PUNE, INDIA: Symantec Corp. announced the results of the August 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report, now combining the best research and analysis from the Symantec.cloud MessageLabs Intelligence Report and the Symantec State of Spam & Phishing Report.

This month’s analysis reveals that once more spammers are seeking to benefit from fluctuations in the turbulent financial markets, most notably by sending large volumes of spam relating to certain “pink sheets” stocks in an attempt to “pump” the value of these stocks before “dumping” them at a profit.

Threat landscape -- India highlights from Symantec Intelligence Report, Aug. 2011
* 88.8 percent organizations spoofed for phishing attacks were in the financial services sector globally.
* 100 percent of Indian brands targeted for phishing attacks were in the banking sector.
* Spam in India constituted 74 percent of all email in August 2011.
* Phishing with Indian geo-location saw an increase of 148.38 percent from the previous month.
* Hyderabad tops the list of Indian cities hosting phishing attacks on non-Indian brands.
* One in 207.7 emails were identified as phishing globally.
* One in 203.3 emails in August contained malware globally.
* India was the highest originator of spam in August, accounting for 16.6 percent of total global spam volume.