"Of all the existing forms of malware, ransomware seems to be the one on the rise. This is probably because it is perceived as easy money, in that victims are deprived of access to their files immediately, and rarely have adequate resources to cope without paying," according to a report by Security Advisor.
He adds that 2017 saw a record number of security vulnerabilities. By the end of September, more than 16,000 new vulnerabilities had already been reported, while the total number of vulnerabilities detected during the whole of 2016 was less than 18,500.
Of all the vulnerabilities detected this year, 40% have a severity greater than 7 on the CVSS scale, and just over 30% of them are already being publicly exploited. And as an additional point, in the United States, compared to 2016, there has been an 18% increase in the number of exploited security breaches that have been publicly reported, which translates into an increase of more than 300% in the number of exposed records compared to the same period.
Fileless malware, in turn, also increased its activities compared to the previous year. This is a type of malware that is not based on malicious executable files but rather its entire existence occurs in memory, managing to infect servers and workstations without leaving behind traces easily detectable by traditional anti-malware software. According to Security Advisor, it is estimated that around 30% of all attacks this year were of this type, compared to 20% in 2016.
In 2018, this percentage could rise to 35%. This type of malware is driving changes in defences, leading to a new generation of controls. Also, 2017 has seen an increase in cybercriminal activity on IoT, the Internet of Things.
Source: Radio Monte Carlo
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