The US slipped from first to third in virus production during August, being overtaken by India in the top spot followed by Russia in second.

As a virus source, the US accounted for a shade over 8% of the total tracked by Network Box, down precipitously from 14.65% in July. India, which was the source of 9.5% of viruses in July, claimed the top spot in August with a 13.74% average daily rate.

Russia took home second place in August, as its daily average virus rate shot up from 4.01% in July to just a bit over 11% during this past month.

The US maintained its spot as the world’s spam generation leader, with a 12.2% daily average. Rounding out the top three were India in second (7.69%) and Brazil in third (5.4%).

Simon Heron, an internet security analyst with Network Box, said the constant fluctuation of this type of data shows the flexibility of cybercriminals.

“The country sources of these internet threats shifts each month, which shows how quickly internet criminals can move their operations round the world and launch attacks”, he noted, adding that “businesses need to be vigilant and ensure they are not opening up the back door to a hacker when they use new applications or technologies”.