More than 230,000 users were targeted by malware infection attempts in the second quarter of 2019, according to the Kaspersky IT Threat Evolution Q2 2019 report.
The exact number of unique users targeted is 232,292, which is 46% more than a year ago, in Q2 2018. The countries with the largest user shares were Bangladesh (9%), Uzbekistan (6%), and Mozambique (4%).
The data showed that infection attempts aimed at obtaining money through electronic access to bank accounts were recorded on 228,206 user computers (a 6% increase in Q2 2019 compared to Q2 2018).
Ransomware attacks were found to be the most prevalent. Ransomware is a type of malware designed to deny access to a computer system or data until a ransom is paid to hackers . The one that attacked users most frequently in Q2 2019 appears to be WannaCry (23.4%). Another notable attacker was GandCrab (13.8%).
“The GandCrab case is a good illustration of how effective ransomware can be, with its creators stopping their malicious activity after claiming to have collected a huge amount of money by extorting money from their victims,” said Fedor Sinitsyn, a security researcher at Kaspersky. “We expect new actors to replace GandCrab and urge everyone to protect their devices by regularly installing software updates and choosing a reliable security solution.”
Kaspersky researchers detected 16,017 new ransomware modifications in Q2 2019 – including those belonging to eight new malware families , the report said. The increase in malicious modifications and the emergence of new families is a dangerous sign that criminal activity is intensifying as new malware variants emerge, the report added.
