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Malware causes warnings on IOL sites for users
Millions of computer systems in the world may have been affected by malicious software and after Malware Monday and on Wednesday morning, computer users - using Firefox and Sophos - received a warning notice on IOL's site warning that it may contain malicious software and had been automatically blocked.
The warning did not appear when using other browsers.
According to an international internet crime report published in 2011 SA ranked seventh in the world in terms of cyber crime vulnerability‚ ahead of France‚ Germany and the Russian Federation‚ with USA‚ Canada and the UK being the three most vulnerable respectively.
Malware is malicious software that is designed to disrupt a computer's operation and get access to sensitive information.
According to Exactech director Sean Morrow, South Africa had no legislation obligating businesses to report hacking‚ so exact statistics of cyber crime were unknown and‚ perhaps‚ worse than most feared.
"I'm sure the number of computers infected with malware goes well beyond a million. Infection of computers in this country would be hard to quantify but there is no question that users are at risk‚" Morrow said.
This year cyber crime became one of the top five global risks to economies in terms of likelihood.
Arthur Goldstuck CEO of World Wide Worx said South Africans were at risk because many business owners and managers were not securing their systems and added that local users was "vulnerable‚ not as much because of investment potential‚ but because of a lack of awareness".
Morrow advised computer users and owners to use an antivirus software‚ conduct manual scans and update all of their systems to avoid malware infection.
Users can check their computers for infection at www.dcwg.org.
Source: I-Net Bridge
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