[ISN] NZ the victim of faulty intelligence from IBM

[InfoSec News]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3369744a28,00.html

08 August 2005  

IBM has erroneously identified New Zealand as the world's second
largest source of worm, virus, phishing and hacking attacks during the
first half of the year.

The claim was made in its Global Business Security Index Report, a
regular report the company produces on internet threats.

IBM said in a statement issued in Armonk, New York that during the
first half of the year 12 million such internet attacks were launched
from the US, 1.2 million from New Zealand and one million from China.

The rankings are given in absolute terms - rather than by head of
Population - meaning that, if correct, New Zealanders would be
responsible for hundreds of times their share of internet crime.

IBM New Zealand spokeswoman Rachel Dahlberg says references to New
Zealand as the second largest source of internet crime were removed
from a report issued by IBM earlier this year after doubts emerged
about their accuracy.

She says that due to the way the internet addressing system works,
internet attacks launched from a number of other countries, including
South Korea, had been identified as originating from New Zealand.

"New Zealand does not have a unique range of IP addresses blocked for
itself as a country, as is the case with many other countries. We
intend to further investigate the raw information supplied to us by
external sources and how this can be improved to more accurately
represent the New Zealand figures."

IBM's statement said the report was put together based on information
provided by IBM's 3000 information security professionals. Its
findings are widely reported overseas.