More than 1 Million Threats Against Israeli Users During Q3 2013
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עברית (Hebrew)
Kaspersky Lab detected more than 649,777 internet malware attacks targeting Israeli users during July-September 2013. A total of 27.5% of the users were targeted during this period, which places Israel in the 47th place as far as dangerous web surfing is concerned. Information on the online threats active in Israel is based on data collected by the global Kaspersky IT security network, KSN, which monitors and blocks threats. The network connects all of Kaspersky’s products and users.
Exploiting Web Browser Vulnerabilities
Surfing the web using a browser is one of the main methods of malware infection. One of the most common tactics used by hackers is infection while the user visits a malicious website. By exploiting a browser or addon vulnerability the users unknowingly download malware onto their computers. This is known as drive-by-download. Protection against these attacks requires a surfing protection system capable of identifying threats as they attempt to download themselves, and constantly updating the browser.
Social Engineering
Another infiltration tactic requires the user’s active downloading of malicious code. This occurs when hackers succeed in making the user believe that he’s downloading a safe program. Protection against these attacks requires a solution capable of real-time identification of malicious code, while in the process of being transferred, even if it was verified by the user.
IHLS – Israel Homeland Security
Local Threats
Worms and viruses are responsible for most IT security events detected on the users’ computers, which are constantly facing malicious code attacks spread by USB drives, DVDs and other offline methods of attack. Protection against these threats requires more than an anti-virus solution, it also requires a robust firewall and monitoring of mobile devices.
During Q3 2013 Kaspersky Lab identified 1,195,638 local threats on Israeli computers connected to the KSN network. 30.7% of the users were attacked.
Malicious Hosts
Israelis are not only infected by various threats, they also act a source for attacks. When a Kaspersky client is attacked online, the source of the attack is documented. Based on this information, 0.03% of all attacks originate from Israeli hosts, a total of 128,917 events during Q3 2013. This places Israel at the 52nd place globally.
Sources of Spam
China, with 22.2%, and the U.S., with 18.4%, are the leading spam-spreading countries. Israel’s spam ranking is relatively low, 0.32%, which places it in the 31st place. The Q3 2013 spam report also notes that during this period the total global levels of spam went down to 68.3 percent out of all e-mail messages, 2.4% lower compared to the second quarter.
