New Sophos security report.

Sophos has published its Security Threat Report 2007, examining the threat landscape over the previous twelve months, and predicting malware and spam developments during 2007.

The report reveals that the US hosts more than one third of the websites containing malicious code identified during 2006, as well as relaying more spare than any other nation.

It also examines in detail the top ten malware threats of the last year, and also confirms that malware authors are continuing to turn their backs on large-scale attacks in favor of more focused strikes against computer users.

Microsoft Windows continues to be the primary target for hackers, with internet criminals increasingly manufacturing downloading Trojan horses rather than mass-mailing worms to do their dirty work for them.

Countries hosting websites containing malware

The top ten countries hosting web-based malware during 2006, according to the experts at Sophos Labs, were:

1  United States        34.2%
2  China                31.0%
3  Russian Federation   9.5%
4  Netherlands          4.7%
5  Ukraine              3.2%
6  France               1.8%
7  Taiwan               1.7%
8  Germany              1.5%
9  Hong Kong            1.0%
10 Korea                0.9%
Others                  10.5%"

The US remains a hot spot for online criminal activity, and despite authorities' continued efforts to clamp down on cyber crime, too many US-hosted websites still have lax security measures in place," said, senior security consultant for Sophos. "Given the effectiveness of web-based attacks, web hosting companies in the US and elsewhere need to step up their policing of published content, and ensure that malicious code is quickly removed, before innocent users get hit."

Dirty dozen spam-relaying countries

In addition to hosting the largest number of malicious websites, the US continues to top the list of worst spam-relaying nations. While the US has made good progress in its efforts to reduce spam-relaying statistics, there was still more spam sent from US computers in 2006 than any other single nation.

The top twelve spam-relaying countries during 2006 were:

1  United States            22.0%
2  China (incl Hong Kong)   15.9%
3  South Korea              7.4%
4  France                   5.4%
5  Spain                    5.1%
6  Poland                   4.5%
7  Brazil                   3.5%
8  Italy                    3.2%
9  Germany                  3.0%
10 United Kingdom           1.9%
= 11 Russia                 1.8%
= 11 Taiwan                 1.8%
Others                      24.4%

Sophos experts note that up to 90% of all spam is now relayed from zombie computers, hijacked by Trojan horses, worms and viruses under the control of hackers. This means that they. do not need to be based in the same country as the computers being used to send the spam.

www.sophos.com