By Kaspersky
Published December 19, 2023
Between January and October 2023 an estimated 411,000 malicious files were detected daily, which is an increase of nearly 3% compared to the previous year. Experts observed a marked surge of 53% in attacks involving malicious Microsoft Office and other types of documents. Attackers leaned towards more dangerous tactics, such as utilising backdoors to infiltrate systems undetected. These insights underscore the evolving landscape of cyber threats.
Windows operating system continued to be the primary target for cyberattacks, accounting for 88% of all malware-filled data detected daily. Malicious families disseminated through various scripts and different document formats ranked among the top three threats, accounting for 10% of all malicious files detected daily.
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Kaspersky’s detection systems discovered a rather significant daily increase of malicious files in various document formats – for instance, Microsoft Office and PDF – rising by 53% to about 24,000 files. The growth may be linked to a rise in attacks utilising phishing PDF files, designed to pilfer data from potential victims.
The most widespread type of malware continues to be trojans. This year, there has been a notable uptick in the use of backdoors, registering a growth from 15,000 detected files per day in 2022 to 40,000 in 2023. Backdoors stand out as one of the most hazardous types of trojans, providing attackers with remote control over a victim’s system to carry out tasks such as sending, receiving, executing, and deleting files, as well as harvesting confidential data and logging computer activity.
“The cyberthreat landscape continues to evolve, becoming more dangerous year after year. Adversaries continue to develop new malware, techniques and methods to attack organisations and individuals. The number of vulnerabilities reported is also growing annually, and threat actors including ransomware gangs use them without hesitating. Furthermore, the entry barrier into cybercrime is now being lowered due to the proliferation of AI, which attackers use, for example, to create phishing messages with more convincing texts. In these times, it is essential both for large organisations and for every regular user to embrace reliable security solutions,” Vladimir Kuskov, Head of Anti-Malware Research at Kaspersky, says.
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So how can users and organisations stay protected?
Users:
- Do not download and install applications from untrusted sources
- Do not click on any links from unknown sources or suspicious online advertisements
- Create strong and unique passwords, including a mix of lower-case and upper-case letters, numbers, and punctuation, as well as activating two-factor authentication
- Always install updates. Some of them may contain critical security issue fixes
- Ignore messages asking to disable security systems for office or cybersecurity software
- Use a robust security solution appropriate to your system type and devices.
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Organisations:
- Always keep software updated on all the devices you use to prevent attackers from infiltrating your network by exploiting vulnerabilities
- Establish the practice of using strong passwords to access corporate services. Use multi-factor authentication for access to remote services
- Choose a proven endpoint security solution for Business that is equipped with behaviour-based detection and anomaly control capabilities for effective protection against known and unknown threats
- Use a dedicated set for effective endpoint protection, threat detection and response products to timely detect and remediate even new and evasive threats
- Use the latest Threat Intelligence information to stay aware of actual TTPs used by threat actors.
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