ESET India Threat Report released

ESET has released India Threat Report for Quarter I, 2012. ESET researchers have been following the threats landscape in India on monthly basis, collecting information about malware activity through ESET’s ThreatSense.Net, a sophisticated malware reporting and tracking system that utilizes malware related data from all ESET users.

The highest number of detections in the first quarter of 2012 (growing from 3, 99% of total detection in January till 5, 52% in March) was scored by the INF/Autorun.gen class of threat. HTML/Scrlnjext.B.Gen, an HTML web pages containing script obfuscated or iframe tags that that automatically redirect to the malware download, comes on the second position, while globally it’s being seen on the top position within last few month. The third place in ranking went to Win32/Sality, polymorphic file infector which modifies EXE and SCR files and disables services and process related to security solutions. Win32/Ramnit, a parasitic file infecting virus, which also engages in some worm-like propagation behaviors, came down from top of the list in the end of 2011 to #4 place.

Pankaj Jain, Director, ESET India said, “The prevalence of INF/Autorun.gen threat and other samples of INF/Autorun family in India indicates that Indian users are still careless about basic security measures like using genuine software, including antivirus software, scanning removable media before opening the files, etc. INF/Autorun is a variety of malware using the autorun.inf file as a way to compromise a PC. This file contains information on programs meant to run automatically when removable media (often USB flash drives) are accessed by a Windows PC user. Removable devices are useful and very popular, while malware authors are well aware of this fact. That keeps INF/Autorun always on the top among other threats, not only in India but worldwide.”

According to the latest ESET threats report (March, 2012) threats like Win32/Sality/NBA, Win32/Ramnit.A that came on 3rd and 4th positions are less seen globally, comparing to India. At the same time, some threats active worldwide have not been detected in India at all.

Simple tips ESET advices to follow in order to prevent getting infected by viruses and other malware are: Avoid downloading pirated software, cracks, keygens; Get the latest computer updates for all your installed software; Use up-to-date antivirus software (pirated ones are not updated properly!); Enable a firewall; Limit user privileges/access levels on the computer; Be careful opening attachments, accepting file transfers and clicking on links to webpages; and Use strong passwords and don’t forget to change them once you fixed all infections on the system.