Fraudulent vaccination promises dominate the spam volume. ESET Threat Report: Ransomware is used for targeted attacks.
Cybercrime has specialized in 2020. This is a conclusion of the Threat Report for the fourth quarter of 2020, which ESET has now published. The experts of the European IT security manufacturer also use the last report of the past year to look back on the year as a whole and to look ahead to 2021.
Corporate ransomware
One result of the report: Ransomware is used more and more for targeted attacks against companies. Hackers, on the other hand, rely less and less on encryption Trojans for wide-ranging mass attacks. In addition, so-called banking malware continued to slide into the limelight. More and more users are doing financial transactions from smartphones or tablets. Criminals are following the trend and are increasingly relying on these malware, especially with the popular Android operating system. Also in the fourth quarter there were numerous spam and phishing emails related to the corona pandemic and the vaccinations that were starting. The ESET Threat Report is available on WeliveSecurity.
Corona changed the attacks
“Cybercrime changed significantly in 2020, also influenced by the corona pandemic. The rapidly digitized world of work and everyday life has also changed the way many hackers work, ”explains Thomas Uhlemann, ESET Security Specialist. “The major malware campaigns were less common in 2020. Rather, a specialization in targeted attacks began, which was otherwise more characteristic of APT groups. We expect this development to continue in 2021. "
Targeted attacks with ransomware
From the third to the fourth quarter, the detection of ransomware in ESET telemetry decreased by 3,9 percent. Cyber criminals use encryption Trojans less and less for large-scale mass attacks and have increasingly adopted them for targeted attacks. Companies were particularly affected here. A prominent case was the successful attack on a German media company at the end of last year.
Banking malware goes mobile
Digital banking and shopping is very popular on smartphones and tablets. According to a recent Bitkom survey, 58 percent of private users use their smartphones for online banking - and the trend is rising. While banking malware for the Windows operating system is waning, cybercriminals have significantly increased their activities with malicious code for the Android operating system since the third quarter.
Fraudsters promise vaccination option
The year 2020 was marked by the corona pandemic. Criminals have sent massive amounts of spam and phishing emails related to the rampant virus. Until the middle of the year it was initially about supposed offers for mouth and nose covers, in the fourth quarter it was fraudulent vaccination promises. This topic increased by around 50 percent in the emails. In this context, the name of the vaccine manufacturer Pfizer-BioNTech was also mentioned with subject lines such as “Pfizer's Covid Vaccine: 11 Things you need to know”.
The ESET Threat Report for the fourth quarter of 2020 is available on WeliveSecurity. In addition to numerous statistics on current cyber threats, the researchers from the European IT security manufacturer report on the activities of various APT groups such as Lazarus or Winnti.
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