countries

The Republic of Sierra Leone in West Africa isn't exactly a top tourist destination spot. Nonetheless, even if visiting the place might be dangerous, Sierra Leone has been rated the safest place in the world to use the Internet. The figures come ... from security firm Antivirus Grisoft (AVG), which analyzed data from 127 million customers in 144 countries. The statistics are based around the number of times the AVG software detected a security threat, compared with the number of times users went online. The figures reported are the chances that an average user's computer will be attacked on any ... (view more)

According to Jeff Williams, the principal group program manager for the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, computers in countries with high rates of software piracy are more likely to be infected by malicious code because users are leery of ... applying security patches. In China , the piracy rate is nearly four times higher than that of the U.S., according to a recent Microsoft report. Oddly enough, the use of Microsoft's Windows Update service (used to patch security flaws) in these countries is significantly less than in the U.S. (Source: networkworld.com ) Brazil and France were identified ... (view more)

Although it's been quiet in recent weeks, the dreaded Conficker worm is far from done its reign of terror. In fact, never before has this virus caused so much havoc than when the news mediums stopped printing urgent warnings about its dangers. Now, ... as the reports of countless victims come pouring in, security officials are getting a clear sense of just how many computers are infected on a daily basis. According to one security expert, Conficker infiltrates as many as 50,000 new PCs every day. International Incident What makes matters worse is that the virus has no specific target area, as all ... (view more)

In the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, a new breed of hacker-investigators monitoring how traffic is routed through countries where web sites are blocked and why it is happening are reportedly conducting digital espionage --- turning their ... attention to a new weapon of international warfare: cyber attacks. "Hacktivists," led by Ronald J. Deibert, director of Citizen Lab, referred to as the "NSA of operations," set out to help residents in countries that censor online content, but have ended up tracking wars. Citizen Lab researchers created a software tool called Psiphon that helps ... (view more)