Need PPP model to create awareness on cyber security: Microsoft India

NEW DELHI: Technology giant Microsoft India today supported a public-private partnership (PPP)-based model to generate awareness among people in India about cyber attacks, as more and more people are using social networking sites.

"Phishing attack (it uses email or malicious websites to solicit personal information) through social networks increased from a low of 8.3 per cent of all phishing in January to a high of 84.5 per cent in December, 2010," Microsoft said in its Security Intelligence Report, which highlights cyber attacks and the trend of attacks.

The company comes out with the report every six months. "The Indian government should come out with a PPP model which includes government, private organisations and NGOs in order to make people more aware of the cyber attacks and increase the level of security," Microsoft India Chief Security Officer Sanjay Bahl said.

For India, Bahl said although awareness among the people in India on cyber security-related issues is on the rise, there is ample scope to expand awareness, which can only be done through the PPP model.

"With more consumers and devices coming online every day, cybercriminals now have more opportunities than before to deceive users through attack methods like adware, phishing and rogue security software," Ovum Principal Analyst Graham Titterington said.

The report, which took into account the six-month period from June to December 30, 2010, indicates that in India, the most common category of cyber attacks was worms, which affected 42.5 per cent of all infected computers, down from 45.4 per cent in the last quarter.

The second-most common category in India was Miscellaneous Trojans, which affected 33.9 per cent of all infected computers, down from 34.5 per cent last quarter.

The third most common category in India was Miscellaneous Potentially Unwanted Software, which affected 33.7 per cent of all infected computers, up from 31.9 per cent in the last quarter.