TrickBot and Emotet are again at the top of the list of most prevalent malware in October, as they have led to a sharp increase in ransomware infections, according to new analysis by Israeli company “Check Point Software”. The Tel Aviv-based security vendor compiled its Global Threat Index for October 2020 from data derived from its threat intelligence system “ThreatCloud”, which is said to examine over 2.5 billion sites and 500 million files daily.
Emotet was declared the most prevalent malware last month, accounting for 12% of infected organizations worldwide. It is followed by TrickBot and Android malware “Hiddad”, each having a global impact of 4%.
Both Emotet and TrickBot first appeared on the threat landscape as banking trojans, but have evolved significantly in recent years, allowing for everything from encryption and ransomware to sophisticated data theft.
The two prevalent malware types are increasingly being used by hackers, helping them gain access to a target's system and infect it with various types of malware, including ransomware. This led to a 71% increase in ransomware attacks on U.S. last month compared to September, while the data showed a 36% increase in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and a 33% increase in Asia-Pacific.
Maya Horowitz, director of threat intelligence and research at Check Point, said there has been a significant increase in ransomware attacks since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with cybercriminals exploiting security gaps as organizations try to support remote workers. These attacks have increased alarmingly over the past three months, especially against the healthcare sector, and are being driven by pre-existing infections by TrickBot and Emotet. As such, Horowitz stressed that healthcare organizations around the world should be especially vigilant about this risk and look for these infections before they cause real damage and pave the way for a ransomware attack.
As reported by Infosecurity Magazine, the findings of the research conducted by Check Point coincide with those of HP Inc, which revealed last week that Emotet trojan attacks increased by over 1200% from the 2nd to the 3rd quarter of the year.
