Top three encountered malicious software in the region include Gamarue, Skeeyah and Peals
Hong Kong – 7 JUNE 2016 – Microsoft Asia today announced the launch of its Malware Infection Index 2016 (MII2016), which identifies the key malware threats in the region and ranks markets in Asia according to how much they are affected.
The top three most encountered malware include Win32/Gamarue, a worm that is commonly distributed via exploit kits and social engineering; and Win32/Skeeyah and Win32/Peals which are generic detection for threats with trojan characteristics. The findings are based on data from the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) and the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIRv20).
The Asia region is especially vulnerable with emerging countries most at risk of malware threats where more than 1 billion people are on the Internet and individuals and businesses are increasingly operating in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.
MII2016 revealed the locations with the highest malware encounter rates was Pakistan, followed by Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam respectively. Each country had an average of close to 40 percent or more computers encountering malware, compared to the worldwide average of only 20.8 percent, as of 4Q 2015, up from 17.6 percent in 1Q 2015.
Top markets in Asia under malware threats:
| 1. Pakistan | 6. Philippines | 11. Malaysia | 16. Australia/Korea |
| 2. Indonesia | 7. Cambodia | 12. Singapore | 17. New Zealand |
| 3. Bangladesh | 8. India | 13. Taiwan | 18. Japan |
| 4. Nepal | 9. Sri Lanka | 14. China | |
| 5. Vietnam | 10. Thailand | 15. Hong Kong |
Top Three Encountered Malware in Asia
The top three most-encountered malware families in the Asia region were Win32/Gamarue, a worm which can give a malicious hacker control of your PC; and Trojans Win32/Skeeyah and Win32/Peals, which can steal personal information, download more malware or give hackers access to your PC.
Win32/Gamarue is particularly prevalent in Southeast Asia and was the third most commonly encountered malware family world in 2H 2015. Certain heavily affected locations such as Indonesia reported Win32/Gamarue encounter rates of over 20 percent in 4Q 2015, close to the worldwide encounter rates for all threat families combined for the quarter.
It is commonly distributed via exploit kits and social engineering and has been observed to steal information from the local computer and communicate with command-and-control servers managed by attackers. It is particularly prevalent in Mongolia, with 35 computers infected out of every 1,000 running the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) in 2H 2015.
Trojans Win32/Peals and Win32/Skeeyah are generic detections for a variety of threats that share certain characteristics. Trojan encounters increased 57 percent from 2Q 2015 to 3Q 2015 and remained at a high through the end of the year, which was attributed to increased encounters with Win32/Peals and Win32/Skeeyah. They have been observed to download and install other malware, use your computer for click fraud, steal information like usernames and browsing history and give your PC access to a remote malicious hacker.
Keshav Dhakad, regional director, Intellectual Property & Digital Crimes Unit, Microsoft Asia, said, “The rising sophistication and evolving cyberattacks is causing devastating disruption, as well as compromising personal and financial information not just for individuals, but also businesses and governments. In fact, it generally takes on average up to 200 days for organizations to find out they have been victims of cyberattacks.”
As part of Microsoft’s commitment to building trust in technology in the region, a new Cybersecurity Center (CSC) to advance the fight against cyberthreats was opened in South Korea in March, following a similar launch in Singapore last February. The CSCs drive greater public-private partnerships to fight cybercrime, as well as strengthen the cooperation with local businesses, governmental and academic organizations on cybersecurity. These CSCs are an extension of the Microsoft Cybercrime Center in Redmond, USA, the headquarters of Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit (DCU). The others in Asia are located Beijing, Tokyo and India.
Click here to view Microsoft Malware Infection Index 2016.
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