Online frauds: India 6th most frequently attacked country

India has emerged as the sixth most frequently attacked country with cybercriminals duping people and corporates across platforms like social media, emails and online games, security software maker Kaspersky said.

According to Kaspersky Lab, about 39.6 million users faced phishing attacks in 2013, an increase of 2.32 percent from the previous year.

Phishing involves sending emails purporting to be from reputable firms to unsuspecting individuals and also corporate entities to influence them in revealing personal and financial information like passwords, credit card numbers, etc.

India (4.08 percent) ranked sixth after the US (30.8 percent), Russia (11.2 percent), Germany (9.32 percent), Japan (6.24 percent) and the UK (5.2 percent).

Social networking websites emerged as the most common platform (35.4 percent) for phishing attacks given the phenomenal increase portals like Facebook, Flickr, Youtube and others have seen as they allow people and corporates to connect and share content with their peers.

Over 31 percent of phishing attacks in 2013 were targeted at financial institutions with 22.2 percent of these attacks involving fake bank websites.

The report found that 59.5 percent of banking phishing attacks exploited the names of just 25 international banks, while the rest used the names of over 1,000 other banks.

"Spammers are becoming more intelligent in masking their messages under the garb of offering something genuine to the recipients - be it Valentine's day discount or news about Ukraine, etc," Kaspersky Lab Managing Director South Asia Altaf Halde said.

Once the unsuspecting users clicks or downloads the email attachment, Trojans are downloaded without the user's knowledge, which are capable of stealing data or even holding the data at ransom.

"With the number of threat vectors increasing alarmingly along with the rise of cybercriminal activities, it is imperative that Internet users in India protect themselves.

The government should also initiate spam laws that will deter spammers from making India their safe haven," he added.