Digital Trends

According to Threat Expert, Russia has surpassed both China and the United States in the production of spyware and viruses.

Statistics gathered by Ireland's Threat Expert automated threat analysis system find that Russia has surpassed both China and the United States in production of viruses, malware, and other malicious software. According to Threat Expert, Russia now accounts for 27.89 percent of malware, while China accounts for 26.52 percent. The United States is in third place with just under 10 percent.

Threat Expert concludes that the demise of the infamous malware distribitor the Russian Business Network (RBN) had essentially no impact on malware production in Russia—although it is now more difficult or analysts like Threat Expert to track the origins of malware. RBN was shut down in November 2007 after a long history of generating malware, hosting malware sites, and allegedly hosting phishing and child pornography operations.

"The bottom line is that there are more viruses and spyware coming out of Russia now than ever before and the complexity of this malware is also increasing," said PC Tools market analyst Shevencko, in a statement. "The trend is to produce many variants and flood networks as quickly as possible. The perpetrators can then sit back and see what has landed and which machines will be compromised."