'India has 42 mn cyber crime victims every year'

The 'Internet Security Threat' report that was recently released by Norton (Symantec) has stated India has 42 million cyber crimes every year.

According to the report, there are 42 million cyber crime victims every year on a pan-India basis. During the last year, 52 per cent of such victims had suffered attacks such as malware, viruses, hacking, scams, fraud and theft.

The report adds eighty people are vicitimised under various cyber crimes, every minute across India.

The study reports seven out of 10 adults have been victims of different modes of cyber crime in their life time.

Ritesh Chopra, Country Sales Manager, Norton said seven per cent of the estimated global price tag of cyber crimes are being carried out every year in India. The estimated price tag in India is US $ 8 billion whereas the global bill is US $ 110 billion. Eighty-five per cent of the total financial cost of the cyber crimes are the result of fraud, theft and loss. Fraud constitutes 42 per cent of the total financial loss.

The report reveals a 58 per cent increase in mobile malware. Thirty-two per cent of mobile threats are attempts to steal e-mail IDs and telephone numbers and 61 per cent of malicious web sites are legitimate and are compromised and infected with a malicious code. The top five web sites hosting infections include business, technology and shopping web sites. Sixteen gangs are active in ransomeware.

The report adds India tops the table in cases of spam attacks across the globe, is number two in virus attacks and is third in case of all kinds of threats.