Cybercriminals are moving away from attention-grabbing ransomware attacks to more covert methods intended to steal money and valuable computing resources, acccording to Trend Micro’s Midyear Security Roundup 2018.
Cyper-jacking attempts–stealing computer resources to mine cypto currency–are making the biggest impact in the first half of this year, with a 96 percent increase over all of 2017, the report says.
“The recent change in the threat landscape mirrors what we’ve seen for years – cybercriminals will constantly shift their tools, tactics and procedures (TTPs) to improve their infection rates,” said Jon Clay, director of global threat communications for Trend Micro in a statement.
“Standard spray and pray ransomware attacks and data breaches had become the norm, so attackers changed their tactics to be more covert, using entry vectors not previously seen or used extensively. This means once again, business leaders must evaluate their defenses to ensure sufficient protection is in place to stop the latest and most pressing threats.”
Another shift, according to the report,is toward “unusual malware types,” such as fileless, macro and small file malware. Trend Micro recorded a 250 percent increase in detections of one particular small file malware. That may be due to the increased ability of these malware types to circumvent defenses that employ only one type of security protection.
