Internet Fraud: It's an Israeli Thing!

Israel keeps its dubious crown

By Guy Griml

haaretz.com

Israel has much to be proud of, but one dubious distinction it might prefer to do without is that the People of the Book have the highest proportion of hackers per Internet user in the world.

The United States sports the highest absolute number of denial of service attacks. But Israel boasts the most malicious mischief per surfer in the world.

In a recent report on Internet security threats around the world during the first half of 2007, virus buster Symantec claimed that 11 percent of the computers used by Israeli surfers are directly responsible for online attacks and other hacker mischief.

Second to Israel in proportion of hackers is Canada, followed by the U.S. At least some things change: In the last Symantec report, on the second half of 2006, Israel still placed first in hackers per user (with 9 percent), but the second and third places were held by Taiwan and Poland.

In 2004, Israel was in fifth place. It has come a long way.

Another type of malware, or malicious software, is "software robots," popularly known as bots.

These uncharming pieces of malware usually arrive via spam emails (you know the type - "Boy do I have a deal for you. Pink Viagra and it really works!") What the bots do is comb through your hard disk seeking out information about you. Sometimes, they also help the perpetrator steal your identity, not for the sake of playing games, but to clean you out. And that doesn't mean your kitchen cupboards.

Symantec says that China has the most bot-infected computers, but Israel is in third place, with 3 percent.

Don't blame Petah Tikva for that paltry showing. In the Symantec ranking of cities with the most bot-infected computers, Petah Tikva places second in the whole of the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). That is quite an achievement, given that in the previous report, on the second half of 2006, Petah Tikva was in ninth place.

The city of Haifa can command respect, too: It is in tenth place in the EMEA, up from twelfth place in the previous half year.

Why do Petah Tikva and Haifa rank so high? Chiefly because these two cities host the headquarters of Internet service providers - Internet Gold in Petah Tikva and NetVision in Haifa.

A worrying aspect of the Symantec report is that cybercrime seems to be not only spreading, but becoming more professional. It is no longer a question of some sickly pale megagenius kid sitting in his parents' basement hacking into the Pentagon: The company found a rising number of cyber-criminals using advanced tools to perpetrate malicious attacks.

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