The Hindu Business Line : Hackers targeting Tier-II cities: Symantec

New Delhi, Nov. 2 In an indication that hackers are now targeting Tier-II cities, while maintaining their focus on metros, a latest report by Symantec Corporation found that cities such as Bhopal, Hyderabad, Noida, Pune and Surat now feature alongside Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi in the list of bot-infected Indian cities.

Mumbai has topped the Symantec’s list of bot-infected cities, followed by New Delhi.

“As cyber-threats continue to grow in India with more than 30 million Internet users across Tier I & II cities, it has never been more important to remain vigilant and informed on the evolving threat landscape,” said Mr Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Symantec India, while releasing the latest Internet Security Threat Report here.

During the period January-June 2007, India saw an average of 374 new bots per day. Internet bots, also known as Web robots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet and are used in the coordination and operation of an automated attack on networked computers, such as a denial-of-service attack.

Bot targets

“India, a hub for more than 40 command-and control servers, has about 38,465 distinct bot-infected computers. As per the list of bot-infected cities identified by Symantec, Mumbai at 33 per cent tops the list followed by New Delhi at 25 per cent, Chennai with 17 per cent and Bangalore at 13 per cent. Tier-II locations are now also a target of bot-networks with Bhopal at four per cent, and Hyderabad, Surat, Pune and Noida also at one per cent each,” Symantec said.

Small and medium businesses in India are increasingly targeted by phishing, spam, bots, and malicious code (malcode) attacks that are created for extracting information that can be used for financial gain. These businesses are also victims of data theft and data leakage as they lack a strategy of multiple layers of security defences.