Spain and the United States are the countries most infected with bots, malware used to send spam and spread viruses. Portugal is 13th in the ranking, with 1% of all computers infected by bots, show data from PandaLabs for October.
According to Panda Security, these programs allow hackers to remotely control the systems they infect and carry out a series of actions such as sending spam and downloading viruses, worms and Trojans, among other security threats.
“Among rogueware, botnets and zombie computers, we saw an increase of more than 30% over this year”, explains Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, in a statement. According to him, the owners of these zombie computers are “committing illegal activities without their knowledge, and could face serious consequences, from the simple cancellation of their supplier’s Internet services to an eventual legal process”, he adds.
With 44.9% of bot infections worldwide, Spain leads this ranking prominently, followed by the United States with over 14.4% of compromised computers and Mexico, with 9.3%. Portugal’s 13th place puts the country in a good position on this list.
To reduce this infection rate, Panda recommends that users keep a good antivirus installed, always up to date, and they can also use free online tools to check if they have any malware installed.
In September, PandaLabs placed Portugal in 20th place among the countries with the highest incidence of viruses, with an infection rate close to 50%.
