At 36.2% of all malware infections on the internet, China was by far the largest contributor of internet malware in January 2010 according to the Kaspersky report. Second on the list was Russia, at 5.8%, followed by 4.4% from the US.
The January 2010 report from Kaspersky broke down as follows:
- China – 36.2%
- Russia – 5.8%
- US – 4.4%
- India – 3.9%
- Germany – 3.9%
- Egypt – 3.2%
- Mexico – 2.9%
- UK – 2.4%
- France – 2.3%
- Turkey – 2.2%
- Other – 32.8%
David Emm, a member of the research and analysis team at Kaspersky, notes that these results seem to confound some commonly held beliefs about the origins of most malware. “The results may be surprising for some, as traditionally there has been an assumption that a lot of malware and digital pollution came from Russia and Eastern European countries”, said Emm. While Russia did come in second on the list for malware pollution for the previous month, Infosecurity notes that, at least according to Kaspersky’s data, China was responsible for 500% more malware infections when compared with Russia.
According to Emm, another widely held assumption regarding malware is debunked from these figures, at least in January 2010: “Another myth it dispels is that digital pollution only emanates from poorer economies – eminent world economic giants such as the USA and China, as well as the leading EU members Germany, UK and France, are all featured in the list.”