If the US slips into a double-dip recession, it would lead to tech job losses there as well as in India but it could have an even bigger fallout: ‘out-of-job' software engineers lured into cybercrime gangs to produce malware.

According to figures compiled by Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3), which receives complaints about cyber crime and refers them to law enforcement agencies in the US, the number of cases shot up to 48,252 in 2002 from 4,810 in 2001, a whopping rise of 903 per cent. In 2009, it went up to 1,46,663 from the 2008 figure of 72,940, a rise of over 101 per cent.

Malware attacks

In the years when things were normal, it actually came down—for example, In 2010, referrals to the centre were down by 17 per cent to 121,710, and in 2006, it came down by 10 per cent to 86,279 as compared to 96,731 in 2005.

Even though these are only US figures, they are reflective of the world as malware follows a global trend.

Commenting on how current fears of a double-dip recession may affect malware, Mr Vishak Raman, Regional Director, SAARC, Fortinet India, said, “If there are job cuts, starting September, you will start seeing more malware attacks, some of which may affect Indians.”

Ms Sangeeta Lala, Co-Founder and Vice-President, TeamLease Services, however, said such a trend may not happen immediately in India. “In India, this is not predominantly high. People here have not seen this as an option. It may happen in the future, but it will take some time to happen.” “The volumes of spam or malware may go up, but the security measures will stay the same. Users need to be conscious of where they are getting mails from,” Mr Sidharth Vishwanath, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said.

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