Ransomware the biggest threat in 2016: Kaspersky

Outsmarting defenses: Cyber threats are continuously evolving in complexity to gain an upper hand against security protection measures.

Ransomware was the biggest cybersecurity threat for 2016 and will continue to plague everyone in 2017 says Kaspersky Lab Malaysia territory channel manager Nicole Woo.

The security firm says 821,625 unique users were attacked by cryptors in the third quarter, 2.6 times more than the previous quarter.

Cryptors are a form of malware that encrypts the victim’s data so the he or she has no choice but to pay a ransom to get back the data.

“Malware writers are constantly modifying and improving the way they compromise computers,” says Woo.

Instead of tricking users into installing ransomware, attackers are now increasingly breaking into computers and remotely installing the ransomware, she says.  

“In the past 19 years, the nature of malware has grown in complexity,” says Woo. This year 310,000 new virus samples were discovered every day – that’s equivalent to four new samples every minute. That’s a big increase, as in 1994 only one virus was discovered every hour and in 2006 one virus every minute.

Attackers are also continuing to target mobile devices. Kaspersky’s data shows that they are using mobile banking Trojans to steal credit card data, login information and password for online banking accounts.

In the third quarter, the firm detected 30,167 mobile banking Trojans, a 1.1x times increase from the last quarter.

Woo says that the Google Android mobile platform is the hackers’ favourite playground for getting banking info – they are distributing malware via fake apps and in the form of game guides.

This year, the platform accounts for 36% of all online baking attacks, up from 8% the previous year.