G DATA Software AG: Antivirus, Virenschutz, Virenscanner, Internet Security

Bochum (Germany), April 18th, 2008 - The massive army of zombie computers, used by criminals for sending Spam or DDoS attacks, is located in Europe, according to recent findings by G DATA Security Labs. The analysis of IP addresses used, performed by the G DATA Outbreak Shield Team in the first quarter of 2008, brought astonishing facts to light: In terms of zombie PCs, Germany and Italy rank the top of the list worldwide - 20 percent of all computers involved in botnets are found here alone. The number of zombies used each day is 350,000 on average. At peak times, criminals even managed to involve more than 700,000 computers for sending spam.

Botnets form the backbone of the e-crime industry and yield billions in turnovers each year for the operators. The service portfolio of the crime networks is highly diversified and encompasses sending spam, DDoS attacks, phishing, pharming, malware and data theft. Online criminals are therefore constantly on the prowl for poorly protected computers so as to integrate them into their botnets. Countries with a good IT infrastructure and fast DSL connections are at the very top of botnet masters’ list of priorities. According to G DATA Security Labs‘ assessment, it therefore comes as no surprise that Western European countries take the pole position for the number of active zombies.

Top Ten of Countries with the most Zombie PCs

Ralf Benzmüller, Manager, G DATA Security Labs
“Botnet masters have had their sights on Europe for a long time now. Fast DSL connections, good PC equipment and most of all a lot of unprotected Windows systems. Malicious code is preferentially placed by the perpetrators on spoofed or hacked websites. Just loading these rigged websites is enough to transform one‘s PC into a zombie. Using firewalls and virus protection solutions is unfortunately not yet a matter of course for all users. This makes it easy for the perpetrators to keep the number of PCs used high and to quickly make up for breakdowns. Almost every second user in Germany surfs alone without up-to-date virus protection and is consequently easy prey!”

Background: Botnets - the guerrilla army on the Web
Criminals use botnets not only for sending spam and phishing mails or denial of service attacks. Zombie computers are also used to host phishing and malware pages and to scout for email servers. Over the last two years, the number of special bugs (backdoors) which enable attackers to remotely control infected PCs and feed them with additional malicious code has almost quintupled.