50 million cyber threats detected during H2 2018: Seqrite

Endpoint security provider Seqrite said it has detected close to 50 million cyber threats during the second half of 2018.

Cryptojacking malware was among the most prominent threats with over 15,000 hits detected every day according to Seqrite Threat Report H2 2018.

During the period, Seqrite detected close to 50 million threats targeting enterprises- translating to around 186 detections every minute. These detections included known and unknown threats such as crypto jacking, ransomware, trojans, exploits, worms, infectors, potentially unwanted applications (PUAs), and adware.

The IT/ITES industry (27 percent) had the maximum malware detections, followed by Professional Services (24.43 percent), Manufacturing (17.70 percent), and Educational Institutions (11.08 percent) respectively.

With more than 2,000 detections on a daily basis, ransomware remained one of the most persistent threats deployed by cybercriminals. Ransomware attacks have also evolved with time to become more sophisticated and targeted, leveraging multiple attack vectors to sneak past enterprise defenses.

GandCrab, for instance, has evolved five times since it was first detected in January 2018, demonstrating why ransomware remains the most worrisome threat for organizations.

There was also a sharp increase in the number of fileless malware, underlining the importance of robust, multi-layered defense that is rightly deployed and configured.

Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer, Quick Heal Technologies Limited said, "The growing scale, speed, and sophistication of cyber-attacks underlines just how critical it is for enterprises to keep up with the developments within the global cybersecurity domain."

The report also pointed out that in early 2018, Quick Heal Security Labs had predicted that RaaS (Ransomware as a Service) will become the new pillar of MaaS (Malware as a Service). This prediction came true, as RaaS developers started selling entire attack packages along with the intrusion mechanism for a lucrative cut. Seqrite expects this evolution to lead to the possibility of an as-a-Service model for Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs).