Canada has emerged as the second-largest source of phishing, malware and botnet activity, it has been reported.
According to a new report from Websense, online criminals are moving away from Chinese and Eastern European IP addresses and heading to North America.
Patrik Runald, a senior manager of security research at Websense, said that fraudsters are using Canadian servers as they believe Internet service providers are less likely to scrutinize their activity.
As Canada has a better IT security reputation, traffic originating from servers in the country is less often treated with suspicion, he claimed.
“Cyber-criminals are taking advantage of Canada’s clean cyber reputation, and moving shop,” Mr. Runald noted, highlighting the growing phishing risks. “All trends pointed to Canada as the new launch pad.”
The U.S. remains in an unenviable first place in the global malware charts, with France, Germany and China following.