infections Ransomware on corporate PCs doubled in 2015 – 58% of corporate computers were hit by malware during the current year
There was an increase in attacks against corporate networks in 2015, with Kaspersky noting that 58% of all corporate computer systems were attacked by at least one malware attack during the current year – an increase of 3% compared to 2014.
The report shows that the tools used by cybercriminals to target businesses were very different from those used to attack individual users.
Cybercriminals often choose to use digital certificates to introduce malware as legitimate programs onto infected computers on corporate networks, a trick they use less frequently when targeting home users.
But how were these infections achieved? Data shows that one in three attacks launched against corporate networks were carried out via the internet, while 41% of corporate computers were attacked via local networks or via infected portable storage devices.
2015 was undoubtedly the year of ransomware, with the emergence of several new families, arrests of perpetrators, and the dismantling of key ransomware distribution infrastructures. The malware spread widely throughout the year and became a dangerous threat to mobile devices as well.
Corporate networks were no exception to this trend, especially after cybercriminals realized that businesses were much more likely to pay the ransom demanded to decrypt files than home users.
Compared to 2014, where more than 24,000 ransomware infections were detected on corporate computers, in 2015 this number more than doubled, while telemetry data from Kaspersky security products shows that over 51,000 corporate computer systems were locked with ransomware during the current year.
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