Malware Campaigns Do Not Target High Population Cities, Report Says

There is no direct correlation between densely populated areas and malware attacks. Those are the findings of a new Webroot study related to malicious software. In fact, only one in ten most-infected US cities is densely populated. Criminals do not discriminate victims based on location by the look of things.Malware will find its way to everyone on this planet, that much is certain.

The new Webroot study is very troublesome, to say the least. Houston is the US city with most malware infections recorded throughout 2016. The city is well ahead of Chicago and Phoenix. Among the infected device are smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, and IoT devices. Anyone interfacing with malware-laden devices will only help spread this malicious software to others in the long run.

Malware Has No Geographical Bias

What is an even bigger problem is how all of these identified devices contain multiple malware samples. To be more precise, most of the devices contain between six and 24 pieces of malicious software. It is highly likely the end user has never noticed something malicious is going on, though. Unfortunately, devices slowing down means it is time to replace them, for most people. This does not address the underlying problem: everyday consumers are not taking the necessary security precautions.

The only densely populated city located in the malware-infected locations top 10 is Los Angeles. That will not come as a surprise to anyone, as Los Angeles is home to a thriving technology community. This also makes it a prone target for criminals, although very few malicious software campaigns are geographically-oriented. Otherwise, nearly every densely populated city in the world would be home to the vast majority of attacks in the first place.

While it is good to see criminals have no geographical bias, it also makes life more difficult for security researchers. It is easier to concentrate efforts if they know which regions are more prone to attack. Then again, criminals can change their “targets” with relative ease. Using a global campaign to distribute malware makes a lot of sense from a “financial gain” point of view.

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