Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes has revealed that cybercriminals are modifying their tactics in favour of targeting businesses over individuals, which comes alongside a 26 percent fall in recorded cryptojacking incidents in Q3 2018.
In its quarterly ‘Cybercrime Tactics and Techniques’ report, the firm provides insights showing that cybercriminals appear to be paying more attention to big business and their treasure trove of priceless data rather than spending time and effort on individuals.
Report Overview
The report showed a 55 percent rise in criminal online activity targeted at businesses, a hefty increase over Q2 2018. To put that figure in proper context, such detections only increased by 4 percent for individual consumers.
When placed side by side, businesses and consumers showed a 5 percent increase in detections from Q2 to Q3, which may be attributed to the growing popularity of data-theft malware strains called “Emotet” and “LokiBot” which target bank services and steal valuable information.
Summarising its impression of the Q3 2018 cybersecurity threat space the report states:
After a sleepy first two quarters, cybercriminals shook out the cobwebs and revved up their engines in Q3 2018. With cryptominers and exploit kits maturing, ransomware ramping up with steady, sophisticated attacks, and banking Trojans experiencing a renaissance, we’re having one heck of a season. Attack vectors were at their most creative—and most difficult to remediate—especially for businesses
Fewer Cryptojacking Incidents Recorded
The report contains some positive news regarding the menace of cryptojacking, with the data showing that the number of cryptojacking incidents recorded a hefty 26 percent fall as bitcoin took a substantial hit in the market. For cybercriminals, this effectively made unauthorised cryptocurrency mining a less profitable activity compared to data theft and ransomware attacks.
This is in line with an earlier situation in October 2017 when cryptojacking skyrocketed as the price of bitcoin embarked on its record breaking bull run, only to fall considerably after the bitcoin price peaked and started falling.
Malwarebytes also revealed that malicious mining still remains very easy to detect and block. According to the report, it is in fact the case that “staying safe from miners has never been easier.”
An excerpt from the report reads:
As a result of a year-long onslaught of [cryptocurrency] mining, many vendors now specifically target mining software as potentially malicious. Consumers should be less worried about getting infected with miners and more concerned with banking trojans and spyware.
