This Map Tracks Cyberattacks Around the World in Real Time

This rather captivating map shows cyberattacks occurring around the globe in real time—well, at least when they’re detected by security software.

Built by Russian security company Kaspersky Lab, the map shows different malware attacks zooming across the world in multicolours as they’re picked up. You can explore the globe with your mouse (go slow to avoid motion sickness-inducing spinning) and find out more information about the numbers and types of attacks picked up in different countries.

Screenshot of the flat view of the map. Image: Kaspersky

When I took a tour at the time of writing, Russia held the top ranking in “most infected,” with most attacks (over 760,000 since the counter set at 12am GMT) picked up by web anti-virus software. The US was fourth, after India and Vietnam, and the UK was tenth. 

Curiously, where the US also saw most attacks fall in the “web anti-virus” bracket (over 295,000 since the morning), the largest amount of British attacks were picked up by “Intrusion Detection System,” which the company explains “scans individual packets and triggers when new objects appear in the network stack (TCP/UDP/IP packets.)”

Looking at the live graph, that was the second most detected threat worldwide at that moment (the pink line), after those picked up by anti-virus program scans (green).

Screenshot of the live graph. Image: Kaspersky

Of course, the whole point is likely to show off Kaspersky’s products and emphasise the need for them—seeing malware in the form of scarily frequent glowing beacons is a very visual reminder of the number of cyber risks out there. But it’s nevertheless a fun little tool to contrast and compare different countries, and play a kind of spectator game of digital cyberwars. 

As Kaspersky writes on its blog, “Which country gets more spam in the morning: Germany or USA? Who more readily clicks on malicious links: Russians or Japanese? Which country leads in terms of malware infection rates? (Hint: the answer depends on the time of the day).” 

I imagine we’ll see a progression from East to West throughout the day, according to time zones, but you’ll have to check the map later to get the stats.

TOPICS: cyberattacks, Cyberwar, maps, Kaspersky, malware, power, security