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What is the colour of a cyber attack? The harsh blue screen of a crashed computer, or something more elaborate? Kaspersky has created a real-time cyberattack map using data derived from its security systems, showing the spread of threats across the globe in trails of pink and blue.
The Kaspersky real-time map charts a web of malware detection. It includes nefarious activity picked up across email servers and malicious software transferred when visits are paid to particular websites. It presents you with an image of the globe, and lines of colour marked against it that signify the number of cyber attacks currently underway in each country. Click on a country, and it will take you to a more in-depth data set so you can track threats locally. Cyber threats are thus visualised all over the world as they happen, instead of after the event.
Kaspersky scans for attacks using its intrusive detection, web anti-virus functions, and web and mail anti-virus programs. These can then be used to quantify which countries are most at risk from cyber attacks, with detection systems updated every second.
The lines that track different varieties of cyber threats look somewhat like the waves of an ECG machine, and are oddly hypnotic to watch as they update. Particular spikes mean that it does look like a heartbeat at times, with fluctuations and falls in pressure.
The Kaspersky map suggests that the most affected countries on June 12, 2017, are Vietnam, Russia, India, Germany and the United States respectively. These totals reset every day at 0:00:00 GMT, meaning that you can monitor threat levels to countries over time.
It also lists the top local infections over a span of weeks or months, for example, a variety of Trojan programmes or viruses that can be used to gain outside control of a computer. You can see these statistics per country, or as a global tally.
In the UK, we have recently seen firsthand the kind of damage massive cyber attacks can do, with the WannaCry attack on the National Health Service. But smaller-scale infections occur every day across a number of networks.
The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2017 reveals that nearly seven in ten large UK businesses have identified a breach or attack in the past year, with the average cost to large businesses totalling from £20,000 to millions in some cases.
While the Kaspersky map is incredibly informative, it also raises a slightly more problematic issue. While you're watching this live stream of data, someone else is living the threat. The Kaspersky map only represents the attacks picked up by its own systems, creating an intricate, somewhat terrifying snapshot of the 24/7 nature of cybersecurity.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
