A Microsoft study on malware reveals that Pakistan tops the list based on number of machines with malware threats.

A Microsoft study released under the title of the Malware Infection Index 2016 shows that Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh make up the top three countries with the most malware threats detected.

Malaysia sits at No 11 on the list, which lists 19 ­countries from worst affected to least.

Each of the top three most affected countries had an ­average of close to 40% or more of ­computers encountering ­malware – the global average is only about 20.8%.

According to the list, we are better off than countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Cambodia and the Philippines but not countries like Singapore, Taiwan and China.

The country that apparently has the least number of malware threats in Asia Pacific seems to be Japan.

The Microsoft study also revealed that the three most ­common malware found were Gamarue (a computer worm ­distributed via exploit kits and social engineering), Skeeyah and Peals (which are trojans).

Interestingly, Microsoft’s Windows Defender Advanced Threat Hunting team also discovered a group of cybercriminals known as Platinum who have apparently been actively targeting governmental organisations, defence institutes, intelligence agencies and telecommu-nications providers in South and South-East Asia. No further details were given.