The rise of remote work & learning opened new opportunities for many people – as seen by the people who have moved to unfamiliar places or adapted to “workcations.”
Aamir Lakhani, Global Security Strategist & Researcher at FortiGuard Labs, zeroes-in on how adversaries are targeting ‘remote everything.’
Cyber-criminals are taking advantage of the same opportunities – just in a separate way. Evaluating the prevalence of malware variants by region reveals a sustained interest by cyber adversaries in maximising remote work & learning attacks.
Malware Trends
The FortiGuard Labs research team looked into the occurrence of malware varieties by region for the 2nd half of 2021. What they found shows a sustained interest by cyber adversaries in maximising the remote work & learning attack vector.
The team saw that various forms of browser-based malware were prevalent. Often, this takes the form of phishing lures or scripts that inject code or redirect users to malicious sites.
Detections
Detections vary across regions, of course, but can be largely grouped into 3 broad distribution mechanisms: Microsoft Office executables (MSExcel/, MSOffice/), PDF files & browser scripts (HTML/, JS/). Files packed with the Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) are another common feature.
Note that some kinds of browser-based malware occupy the top spots in all regions. Such techniques have gained prominence recently as a way to exploit peoples’ desire for the latest news about COVID-19, politics, sports, or any current headline.
Because many are browsing from their home networks these days, there are less layers of protection between such malware & would-be victims (e.g., no corporate web filters).
Rise of Exploit Kits
The use of exploit kits (EKs) is 1 element that has clearly helped cyber-criminals in their efforts to execute malware. These kits are automated ..
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