Internet-borne threats in India witnessed a significant surge in the second quarter of 2021, as compared to the first quarter of the year, according to a recent report published by global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.

The number of web threats in Q2 increased at by a factor of two when compared to Q1 2021. The statistics according to the recent Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) report show a concerning rise in the number of threats targeted at Indian internet users between April and July, 2021.

Increase in internet-borne threats

Between April-June 2021, Kaspersky products detected and blocked around 8.30 crore different Internet-borne cyberthreats on the devices of KSN participants in India compared to the number of threats detected in the period between Jan-March 2021, which was around 3.76 crore.

This places India in the 37th place worldwide when it comes to dangers associated with surfing the web.

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While comparing the threats detected in the second quarter of 2020 and 2021, the number of threats increased almost 8 fold from 1.67 crore to 8.30 crore threats.

“Infection in this type of attack takes place when visiting an infected website, without any intervention from the user and without their knowledge. This method is used in the majority of attacks. Among them, file-less malware and social engineering attacks are the most dangerous,” Kaspersky explained in an official release.

Decrease in local threats

On the positive side, the KSN report also observed a steep decrease in the local threats detected in India from the period between April-July 2021. During this time, Kaspersky products detected and blocked around 2.64 crore local incidents on the devices of KSN participants in India.

This was in comparison to the number of local threats detected in Q1 2021 that was around 3.98 crore. In Q2 2020 these threats accounted for almost 4.19 crore.

The use of local infection statistics for user computers is an extremely important indicator. Worms and file viruses accounted for the majority of such incidents. The data shows how frequently users are attacked by malware spread via removable USB drives, CDs and DVDs, and other offline methods. The reduction in local infections could also be a result of the Work from Home ecosystem, it said.

The number of attacks hosted by Indian servers were relatively lower at 17 lakh incidents that were detected in the period between April-June 2021.

Dipesh Kaura, General Manager, Kaspersky (South Asia) said, “The increase in the number of internet-borne threats targeted at Indian internet users is definitely a cause of serious concern. In just one year the cybercriminals became almost 8 times more active in targeting internet users in order to achieve great financial gains. Indian consumers are at an even greater risk due to the lack of cybersecurity awareness and cyber maturity amongst the growing number of Internet users.”

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