India is capital of cybercrimes in APAC: says Symantec Report

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE

India is capital of cybercrimes in APAC: says Symantec Report 
Symantec(NASDAQ:SYMC) has released the next edition of IT Security Report, which reveals that India is among the world’s top five countries for the highest number of incidences of cybercrime such as ransomware (11 per cent), identity theft (11 per cent) and phishing (9 per cent). With cybercriminals becoming more sophisticated, the average cost per cybercrime victim is in India is up at US$207 from US$192 last year.

"At first glance of the India findings, we were happy to see a significant drop from the last year in the total number of victims and the total cost of cybercrime, but a closer scrutiny revealed an alarming trend. Today's cybercriminals are using more sophisticated attacks, such as ransomware and spear-phishing, which yield them more money per attack than ever before. With 66 per cent of Indian consumers using their personal mobile device for both work and play, this creates entirely new security risks for enterprises as cybercriminals have the potential to access even more valuable information," said Ritesh Chopra, Country Manager, Norton by Symantec.

According to the 2013 Norton Report, India appears to be the ransomware capital of Asia- Pacific with 11 per cent victims of this form of virtual extortion. In addition to Ransomware, in the last 12 months, 56 per cent of cybercrime victims in India have experienced online bullying, online stalking, online hate crime or other forms of online harassment.

The 2013 Norton Report also finds that many consumers are engaging in risky behaviour that has them playing a game of chance with their private information, putting them at risk of becoming the next victim of online criminals.  A large percentage of the Indian Wi-Fi users access social networks (61 per cent), shop online (44 per cent), and access their bank accounts (42 per cent) through a public or unsecure Wi-Fi.  Adding to the risk are social network users in India who share their password with others (18 per cent)........See More