Ransomware Grows 118% in 2019, McAfee Labs Report Shows Firms Face 504 New Threats per minute

Firms facing challenge securing their data and and digital assets because cybercriminals continuously adopting new tactics and code innovations depending firms cybersecurity system. Latest McAfee Labs report in Q1 2019 data shows firms facing approx 504 new cyberthreats per minute. CSOs and cybersecurity leaders must be ready with advance and updated security model to combat any future cyberthreats.

McAfee labs report Q1 2019 shows New malware grows by 118%, New coin mining malware grows by 29%, New PowerShell malware grows by 460%, there are more than 2 billion stolen accounts credentials available on cybercriminals underground.

On McAfee labs report 2019 – Raj Samani, McAfee chief scientist, said, “The impact of these threats is very real, It’s important to recognize that the numbers, highlighting increases or decreases of certain types of attacks, only tell a fraction of the story. Every infection is another business dealing with outages, or a consumer facing major fraud. We must not forget for every cyberattack, there is a human cost.”

Cybercriminals using anonymous email system to manage their campaigns versus the traditional approach of setting up command-and-control (C2) servers. Using email system is perceived by threat actors to be a more anonymous method of conducting criminal business.

McAfee Labs report 2019 shows the most active ransomware families is Dharma (also known as Crysis), GandCrab and Ryuk. There are many more ransomware families of the are Anatova, which was exposed by McAfee Advanced Threat Research before it had the opportunity to spread broadly, and Scarab, a persistent and prevalent ransomware family with regularly discovered new variants. Overall, new ransomware samples increased 118%.

Active ransomware family:

McAfee labs report 2019 findings are follows

1. Attack vectors: Malware led disclosed attack vectors, followed by account hijacking and targeted attacks.

2. Cryptomining: McAfee labs report 2019 shows new coin mining malware increased 29%. McAfee ATR observed CookieMiner malware targeting Apple users, attempting to obtain bitcoin wallets credentials. As a byproduct, the malware also gained access to passwords and browsing data. Total coin mining malware samples grew 414% over the past four quarters.

3. Fileless malware: New JavaScript malware declined 13%, while total malware grew 62% over the past four quarters. New PowerShell malware increased 460% due to the use of downloader scripts. Total malware grew 76% over the past four quarters.

4. IoT: Cybercriminals continued to leverage lax security in IoT devices. New malware samples increased 10%; total IoT malware grew 154% over the past four quarters, shows McAfee labs report 2019.

5. Malware overall: New malware samples increased by 35%. New Mac OS malware samples declined by 33%.

6. Mobile malware: New mobile malware samples decreased 15%, total malware grew 29% over the past four quarters.

7. Security incidents: McAfee Labs report 2019 counted 412 publicly disclosed security incidents, an increase of 20% from Q4. Thirty-two percent of all publicly disclosed security incidents took place in the Americas, followed by 13% in Europe and 13% in Asia-Pacific.

8. Regional Targets: Disclosed incidents targeting the Asia-Pacific region increased 126%, Americas declined nearly 3% and Europe decreased nearly 2%.

9. Vertical industry activity: Disclosed incidents impacting individuals spiked 78%, education sector increased 50%, healthcare increased 18%, public sector decreased 10%, and financial sector increased 89%.

10. Targeted attacks: McAfee identified a high number of campaigns that effectively minimized the data reconnaissance required to successfully execute attacks. Actors primarily focused on large organizations in the Government/Administration sector, followed by Finance, Chemical, Defense, and Education sectors.

Underground. Biggest dark market, Dream Market, announced its plan to close, citing a large number of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Click here to read or download full pdf McAfee Labs Report 2019