Symantec Welcomes the Opening of IMPACT’s New Facility in Cyberjava

Symantec welcomes the opening of International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT)’s Global Headquarters in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, today and we look forward to continuing our involvement in this important multilateral collaboration to address the increasing levels of online security threats we’re seeing throughout the world.

IMPACT is a very valuable platform for governments and industry players to exchange ideas, best practices, share skills and work together in combating cyber threats. As today’s cybercriminals are thriving on information they are gathering without permission from consumers and businesses, securing and managing information is becoming increasingly challenging. The collaborative initiatives of IMPACT will play an active role in increasing the capacity of its member countries in addressing the challenge.

Symantec is a member of IMPACT’s International Advisory Board and has been providing input on security threats to IMPACT’s Global Response Center, which is located in the new IMPACT Global Headquarters in Cyberjaya. The center encompasses an early warning system, which represents a critical foundation of IMPACT.

As a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions, Symantec engages with governments across the globe to strengthen the policy environment, secure the infrastructure, achieve greater international collaboration, as well as raise public awareness on cyber security issues.

Symantec’s Report on the Underground Economy is an example of resources that organizations and governments across the world can leverage for data on the evolving threat landscape. The following are some key findings from the report:

· The Underground Economy globally is valued at more than US$276 million between the period of July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.

· The underground economy is geographically diverse and generates revenue for cybercriminals who range from loose collections of individuals to organized and sophisticated groups. Between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, North America hosted the largest number of such servers, with 45 percent of the total; Europe/Middle East/Africa hosted 38 percent; followed by Asia/Pacific with 12 percent and Latin America with 5 percent. The geographical locations of underground economy servers are constantly changing to evade detection.

There are a number of groups and organizations that have been active in the trade of fraudulent goods and services in the underground economy. The estimated value of goods offered by the most active trader researched measured was US$6.4 million.