 "China leads in volume of 'attack' traffic on Internet for 2012: report")
New Delhi: China, which boasts of more than 500 million online users, is the source of largest volume of attack traffic on the Internet last year, a global report by cloud solutions firm Akamai has said.
According to Akamai’s ‘State of the Internet’ report for the fourth quarter of 2012, the People’s Republic of China was also the source of largest volume of attack traffic on the net in the October-December quarter of 2012.
“Looking at the full year, China has clearly had the most variability (and growth) across the top countries/regions, originating approximately 16 percent of observed attack traffic during the first half of 2012, doubling into the third quarter, and growing further in the fourth quarter,” it said.
During the fourth quarter of 2012, Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 177 unique countries/regions, down from 180 in the prior quarter, the report added.
[caption id=“attachment_728927” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. Reuters[/caption]
“China once again overwhelmingly remained the source of the largest volume of attack traffic, accounting for two-fifths of the total, up from a third in the prior quarter,” it said.
Akamai, however added: “…the originating country as identified by the source IP address is not attribution - for example, a criminal in Russia may be launching attacks from compromised systems in China”.
“Observed attack traffic volume originating from the United States dropped to 10 percent from 13 percent in the third quarter, and it remained in second place globally,” it said.
In terms of region Internet attack traffic from Asia stood at the highest followed by Europe, North America, South America and Africa.
“In examining the regional distribution of observed attack traffic in the fourth quarter, we find that 56 percent originated in the Asia Pacific/Oceania region, up from 51 per cent in the third quarter, likely due to the significant increase seen in China,” it said.
Europe once again accounted for just less than 25 percent, while North and South America originated just over 18 percent, while, Africa remained consistent at 1 percent of observed attack traffic, the report added.
Akamai publishes a ‘State of the Internet’ report every quarter, which includes data gathered from across the Akamai Intelligent Platform about attack traffic, broadband adoption, mobile connectivity and other relevant topics concerning the Internet and its usage.
PTI
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