Pune accounted for one per cent of Bot-infected computers in 2010: Report

The report,released by Symantec on Tuesday,was endorsed by business leaders in internet security management in Pune. While the actual number of Bot-infected systems could be much more,on an average,435 computers were affected per day,Symantec said. Mumbai was responsible for 31 per cent of Bot infections.

“Cellphones are used as office computers carrying important data. This is what makes the risk paramount,” said,Shantanu Ghosh,vice president India product operations,Symantec. While cellphones have added to security threat,the increased use of social networking sites and newer versions of malware are increasing the user’s vulnerability to malware,he said. “To dupe a company or an individual,the attacker resorts to social engineering and wins over the victim by faking as a close associate. The attacker takes advantage of the information available on the social networking sites. The modus operandi is that a victim gets an e-mail and once the person clicks on the link he or she falls into the trap. All the information in the computer is accessible to the hacker and even the e-mail password can be hacked,” Ghosh said.

Senior Manager,Courion,Bhushan Pandit,said,“With new technologies coming in,the risks are only aggravating. There is a need to constitute multiple platforms to raise awareness on such issues.”

“With the new gamut of malwares,a lot of strain is put on updating the software and anti-virus solutions of the companies,” said Abhijeet Jorvekar,vice president sales and marketing,Quick Heal technologies.

Besides emails,websites developed with shorter uniform resource locator (URL) coukd be malware source,Ghosh said. “ Web-based attacks are common,USB devices and pirated software are also being used now,” he said.