Cybersecurity and Defense company Trend Micro recently revealed a 265 percent increase in Fileless Attacks in the first half of 2019 when compared with the same period in 2018.
A Fileless Attack, also known as a zero-footprint attack or non-malware attack, will not install any malicious software on a user’s computer, as it exploits applications that are already installed in the device.
Trend Micro stated that cybercriminals are using sophisticated attack formats that aren’t visible to traditional security procedures.
In its Mid-Year Cybersecurity report, Trend Micro revealed that out of 1.8 billion ransomware threats, from January 2016 to June 2019, the highest number of ransomware threats (42.98 percent) are suffered by businesses in Asia. And the companies in India reported around 23.88 percent of ransomware attacks in the first of 2019, the report stated.
“Sophistication and stealth are the name of the cybersecurity game today, as corporate technology and criminal attacks become more connected and smarter,” said Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Trend Micro. “From attackers, we saw intentional, targeted, and crafty attacks that stealthily take advantage of people, processes and technology. However, on the business side, digital transformation and cloud migrations are expanding and evolving the corporate attack surface. To navigate this evolution, businesses need a technology partner that can combine human expertise with advanced security technologies to better detect, correlate, respond to, and remediate threats.”
Along with the growth in fileless threats in the first half of the year, attackers are increasingly deploying threats that aren’t visible to traditional security filters, as they can be executed in a system’s memory, reside in the registry, or abuse legitimate tools. Exploit kits have also made a comeback, with a 136% increase compared to the same time in 2018.
Cryptomining malware remained the most detected threat in the first half of 2019, with attackers increasingly deploying these threats on servers and in cloud environments. Substantiating another prediction, the number of routers involved in possible inbound attacks jumped 64% compared to the first half of 2018, with more Mirai variants searching for exposed devices.
Additionally, digital extortion schemes soared by 319% from the second half of 2018, which aligns with previous projections. Business email compromise (BEC) remains a major threat, with detections jumping 52% compared to the past six months. Ransomware-related files, emails and URLs also grew 77% over the same period.
In total, Trend Micro blocked more than 26.8 billion threats in the first half of 2019, over 6 billion more than the same period last year. Of note, 91% of these threats entered the corporate network via email. Mitigating these advanced threats requires smart defense-in-depth that can correlate data from across gateways, networks, servers and endpoints to best identify and stop attacks.
Founded in 1988, Trend Micro holds a variety of cybersecurity merchandise for multiple operating systems, including threat detection, and antivirus products. Hybrid cloud security, network defense, user protection, and small business products are at the core of its product line.