Hyderabad is one of the most threatened Indian cities in terms of digital security, reveals a new report from computer security firm ‘F-Secure’.
According to the report, the city comes second, only behind New Delhi, in the number of threats that F-Secure detected in 2014. The city accounted for about 45,000 threats, nearly nine per cent of them detected on Indian computers last year. The most prominent threat for computers in the city was malware (malicious software) called ‘Sality’.
Sality belongs to a family of malicious software targeting computers with Microsoft Windows operating system. It is said to be the main source of spam mail in the country and can target computers providing online services.
Su Gim Goh, Global Security Advisor, F-Secure Labs told this correspondent that the number of detections and threats have been consistent over the last few years.
“The numbers are largely consistent this year. However, what is encouraging this time is the declining number of threats due a specific type of computer worm that targets computers with Windows XP. This indicates that the computers in India are more into later versions of Windows,” he said.
The transition from Windows XP, a 14-year-old Microsoft Windows operating system, to higher versions has rather been slow in India, what with many computers in crucial sectors like banking still using the operating system until last year.
Interestingly, the report noted that the number of threats in India peaked around mid-August last year – they nearly doubled compared to the 2014 daily average. F-Secure explained the jump as a random spike in detection volumes.
The report also highlighted threats to mobile devices. Hyderabad accounted for nearly seven per cent of all mobile threats detected in India.
A report from computer security firm F-Secure says Hyderabad stood second in the number of threats received by computers here
