Indian defence companies are increasingly becoming target of cyber criminals as they are vulnerable to breaches of cyber security, according to a report by Trend Micro. The attacks by criminals in the cyber space are aimed to infect the e-mail addresses as well as the systems.

The report said that cyber criminals send out emails with PDF attachments to companies. Once infected it is very difficult to remove the malicious content from the systems or to detect on what amount of data is being used under such circumstances.

It further said that attack is being done on the Indian defence firms from the past few weeks and was started in the month of July this year. Apart from India, defence firms in the USA, Japan, Israel have also fallen victim to criminals operating in cyber space.

According to an estimate, cyber crime is an underground economy that is estimated at over USD 100 billion (annually) worldwide. "In total, the attackers compromised 32 computers; however, there were multiple compromises at several locations.

This network has been active since July, 2011 and is continuing to send out malicious documents in an attempt to compromise additional targets. "While this network has managed to compromise a relatively small number of victims, there is a high concentration of defence industry companies among the victims.

Moreover, the fact that specific malware components are created for specific victims indicates a level of intentionality among the attackers," Trend Micro Country Manager India and SAARC Amit Nath said. Trend Micro is a global leader in network anti-virus and internet content security software and services.