As one of the leading MSP along the Wasatch Front, we are seeing an increase in malware infections. Last year, Kaspersky Lab reported that they detected 32,615 malware infections. In just the first six months of this year, the company has spotted 121,588 infections, representing a staggering 273% increase. Routers were the most compromised devices.
The lack of security and absence of any type of security has the IoT “low hanging fruit” to hackers. They are happy to take advantage of this easy access. Besides routers, smart devices like TVs, refrigerators, DVRs, printers, washing machines are also getting hacked. Breeches have gotten so bad that the FBI issued a public service announcement in an effort to warn users of unsecured devices. Sadly, manufactures have show little to no interest in beefing up the security of the devices so the problem is going to get worse before it gets better.
WatchGuard’s Q3 Internet Security Report, which examines security threats affecting small- to-midsize businesses and distributed enterprises, recorded “massive” increases in scripting attacks and overall malware volume, the company said.
“Threat actors are constantly adjusting their techniques, always looking for new ways of exploiting vulnerabilities to steal valuable data,” said Corey Nachreiner, WatchGuard’s chief technology officer. “This quarter, we found that script-based attacks – like the fake Python library packages discovered in September – appeared 20 times more than in Q2, while overall malware attacks shot through the roof.”
Every business, he said, can benefit from deploying “multiple layers of protection, enabling advanced security services and monitoring network logs for traffic related to the top threats mentioned in this report.”
Here are the key findings from WatchGuard’s Internet Security Report:
- Scripting threats, such as downloaders, accounted for 68 percent of all malware.
- Total malware instances spiked by 81 percent this quarter over last. With the holiday season upon us, malware attempts are likely to noticeably jump again in Q4.
- Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, which enable cyber criminals to inject malicious script into web sites, continued to grow, first appearing in Spain but now showing up internationally.
- In Q3, the percentage of new or zero day malware that skirted anti-virus software dropped to 24 percent from a high of 47 percent in Q2.
- Attackers are continuing to evolve how they leverage the HTML iframe tag to force unsuspecting victims to suspicious, often malicious sites. Malicious iframes jumped significantly in both Great Brain and Germany.
- Attacks targeting authentication and credentials increased, as brute force web login attempts proved that attackers still target the weakest link in credentials.
- Most network exploits still target web servers, browsers, and applications.
- Malware hit EMEA the hardest in Q2, with about 72 percent of the total detected malware detected by WatchGuard. Malware hits in the Americas dropped to about 22 percent of the total for the quarter.
“Login access is a top priority for criminals,” Nachreiner said at the time. “Knowing this, businesses must harden exposed servers, seriously consider multi-factor authentication, train users to identify phishing attacks and implement advanced threat prevention solutions to protect their valuable data.”
Protek is a managed service provider for small to medium sized businesses along the Wasatch Front in Salt Lake City Utah. If you want to learn how Protek can help keep you and your business safe from Cyber Criminals, call us today at 801.290.0388.
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