Security news and updates from the last week

India – Where most of the world’s spam originates from
A large amount of email spam originates in India. This interesting report shows that most of the world’s spam actually originates in India.

Facebook has more than 50 million duplicate user accounts worldwide
Facebook officials have claimed that there are currently 50 million duplicate accounts over the social network. This is in addition to around 22 million other accounts which are either misclassified or undesirable. Since its inception, Facebook has garnered more than 1 billion user accounts and around 70 million of these are owned by Indians. But an alarmingly high number of duplicate accounts points to serious identity theft or security risks.

Huge ransomware racket busted in Europe
A massive cyber crime ring that sent out ransomware to users in more than 30 countries has been busted in Europe. The ring has successfully extorted millions of dollars over the last few months. Ransomware locks up a machine and demands a payment to unlock the machine. The busted cyber crime ring posed as police agencies to extort their victims with 48 variants of a ransomware virus that asked each victim to pay $100.

US forces cause cyber threat by charging smartphones via their computers
Many people use the USB ports on their computers to charge their smartphones. This habit has created a security threat for American forces in South Korea as it leads to data theft and security breaches. A smartphone can contain all kinds of malware which may infect the sensitive computers that armed forces use, which leads to an unsafe cyber environment.

Rahul Thadani