Anti-malware developer Kaspersky Lab has said that some 35 percent of users of its antivirus software were targeted by a Web attack at least once while browsing the Internet, with African nations Malawi and Sudan affected particularly badly.
The company said global online threats increased by 2.4 percent compared to 2011.
Kaspersky said Bangladesh, Sudan and Malawi were most affected by the presence of local threats after malware was found on hard drives and external drives.
In overall 2012 malware and cyber-threat statistics, Russia and some of the former Soviet states were rated among the most dangerous countries in which to operate online.
Bangladesh led the pack as the most affected country with over 99 percent attacks. Kaspersky added an extra 31 countries into the high-risk group, which had 41 to 60 percent of users attacked online. In the local threats segment, four African countries joined the top five high-risk group including Sudan o 88.2 percent, Malawi 78 percent, Tanzania 77.4 percent and Rwanda 76.5 percent.
The survey rated Kenya and Ethiopia as countries with medium risk, alongside other 39 countries who had between 56 to 75 percent of users suffer risks from local threats.
Countries with low Internet penetration such as Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were rated as low-risk. The report however showed that even in the safest country, 20 percent of all users faced some form of cyber attack.
