Financial gain remains the key driver of cybercriminal activity. In the past year, we’ve seen multiple developments in this area – from new attack schemes targeting contactless payments to multiple ransomware groups continuing to emerge and haunt businesses. However, traditional financial threats – such as banking malware and financial phishing, continue to take up a significant share of such financially-motivated cyberattacks.
In 2022, we saw a major upgrade of the notorious Emotet botnet as well as the launch of massive campaigns by Emotet operators throughout the year. For instance, malicious spam campaigns targeting organizations grew 10-fold in April 2022, spreading Qbot and Emotet malware. We also witnessed the emergence of new banking Trojans that hunt for banking credentials, and greater activity on the part of some well-known ones, such as Dtrack, Zbot and Qbot.
The good news is that regardless of these continuous advancements, we’ve witnessed a steady decrease in the number of attacks by banking Trojans. Security solutions integrated into operating systems, two-factor authentication and other verification measures have helped reduce the number of vulnerable users. Additionally, in many markets mobile banking has been pushing out online banking, with more and more convenient and secure banking apps emerging.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency became a prominent target for those seeking monetary gain. The amount of cryptocurrency-related phishing grew significantly in 2022, and with an endless array of new coins, NFT and other DeFi projects, scammers are continuously duping users. Funds lost via cryptocurrency are hard to track and impossible to return with the help of a regulatory body, as is done with banks and fiat currency, so this trend is likely to continue gaining traction.
Some advanced persistent threat (APT) actors also started tapping into the cryptocurrency market. ..
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