Asia home to more malware variants

Asian economies are seeing more malware variants than their counterparts in other regions, according to a new report from security vendor Fortinet.

Released Thursday, Fortinet's Threatscape report for October showed that four of the top five territories with the highest percentage of "distinct malware volume", or the highest amount of unique malware activity, were in the Asia-Pacific region. The data for the latest report was compiled from Fortinet's network security appliances and intelligence systems between Sep. 21 and Oct. 20.

Nearly 39 percent of the total unique malware was found to plague Japan, making it the top nation worldwide for distinct malware activity. A quarter of the unique malware were present in China, putting the country at No. 3. Taiwan was fourth with a share of 18 percent, while India took fifth spot with 15 percent.

The United States, at No. 2 on the list, was the only non-Asian country in the top five.

In its report, Fortinet indicated some good and bad news on the malware front. While the total number of malware recorded in September was about 29 million--nearly triple that of the 10 million registered in April--unique malware volume dropped from over 15,000 in April to under 6,000 in September. The trend, said Fortinet, suggested "more aggressive seeding" for the number of active variants in the wild.

According to the vendor, malware represents about 14. 5 percent of all Web threats recorded during the reporting period. Topping the list was pornography, which made up over 71 percent of all undesirable Web traffic. Spyware accounted for nearly 11 percent, while phishing activity made up 3.5 percent.