As Internet becomes the order of life for more and more Indians who depend on emails to stay in touch, their computers face an increasing virus threat with one in every 28 emails being infected, a recent study says.

A study by messaging security and management services provider, MessageLabs, reveals that the number of malicious websites are on rise and a new virus StormWorm, which uses virtual postcards and YouTube video for its attack, are affecting computers.

According to the study, an estimated 1.8 million computers have been affected by StormWorm worldwide.
 
In August, India remained the most vulnerable region in terms of virus attacks with one in every 27.8 emails being infected. However, spam attacks (or unsolicited bulk emails), during this period, accounted for only 29.5 per cent of the total emails received in the country, the study said.      

It also found that there was a rise in emails containing links to virtual postcards and YouTube video invites. On August 15, there was a significant outburst of new malicious websites comprising 6,00,000 emails, which were distributed in just 24 hours.

As a result of this latest StormWorm activity, the number of emails which contained links to malicious code increased significantly in August to 19.5 per cent, a rise of 19 per cent from the July figure of 0.5 per cent.

The analysis on web trends also reveals the steep rise in the number of new malicious websites appearing every day. In August, a daily average of 1,772 new malicious sites were identified and blocked, an average increase of 783 per day since July.

In August, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and unknown sources, for which the recipients' addresses were deemed valid, was 74 per cent, an increase of three per cent on the previous month.

During this time, Israel received the highest number of spam attack at the rate of 70.7 per cent, while France [Images] saw the most significant increase in spam levels at a 9.5 per cent, followed by Spain at 9.2 per cent.      

Across sectors, agriculture ranks as the most spammed with 66.9 per cent, while finance is the least spammed one with 30.5 per cent.

The highest increase in spam activity across all sectors during August was observed in the telecom sector where it rose by 22.3 per cent since July and repositioned this vertical as the second most spammed segment.

The largest drop was in the business support services sector, which fell by 6.2 per cent.

The global ratio of viruses in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources destined for valid recipients was 1 in 80.4 or 1.24 per cent in August, a decrease of 0.14 per cent since the previous month.

The education sector moved to the top of the virus chart in August despite a fall in virus activity of 0.18 per cent, the study revealed.