Malware Spikes in Third Quarter

Malware continues to grow. There has been an increase of 35% more from Q2 to Q3.

To put it into perspective, analyst have quarantined more than 5.7 billion emails containing malware in the most recent quarter over the 1.7 billion emails containing malware that analysts observed during all of 2015.

The three main formats that malware is taking in emails consists of JScript (.js), Windows Script Files (.wsf), and macro-enabled documents (.doc and .xls). And considering the latest news of DDoS attacks, that is also on the rise.

“As more IoT devices become connected and unless consumers start taking the time to install these devices more securely, this trend may only get worse in the short term,” said AppRiver manager of security research, Troy Gill.

As far as ransomware is concerned, Locky and Zepto are still the most promenent, but new variations are also making an impact in the form of EduCrypt, IoT Ransomware and MarsJoke.

Spam is not slowing down either. AppRiver has reportedly quarantined 2.34 billion spam messages with PayPal phishing messages spiking in the third quarter.

Source: Info Security