Incident Response, Malware, Network Security, TDR

Kaspersky: Malware variations increased more than 10 percent in Q3

Security presents a growing challenge for mobile users, as a rising number of malware programs affect devices with more than 323,000 malicious products in Q3 and reports of new malware varieties increasing by 10.8 percent since Q2 2015, a new report showed.

Kaspersky Lab's “IT Threat Evolution Report Q3 2015” also found that mobile adware was the source of more than half of the mobile threats detected. In many cases, the malware gained root access to mobile devices to launch attacks.

While online banking malware attacks retreated slightly globally, Austrian banking customers were affected severely – Kaspersky found that five percent of users in Austria faced a banking Trojan threat during the quarter.

In an email to SCMagazine.com, David Emm, principal senior security researcher at Kaspersky, noted that Austria didn't figure in the top 10 among areas facing banking threats in Q1 or Q2. He suggested that the rise in mobile banking threats in could be “the result of specific campaigns aimed at people in this country, although we don't have data to confirm this.”

The report said antivirus detected found 75,408,543 unique malicious URLs; 38,233,047 unique malicious objects (such as scripts, exploits, executable files); and 5,686,755 registered notifications about attempted malware infections aimed at stealing money via online access to bank accounts.

Kaspersky again highlighted activities of the Turla, a sophisticated malware campaign that is run by a cyberespionage group. The cybergang hijacks downstream bandwidth from satellite Internet providers in order to hide command and control servers.

In March 2014, Reuters reported that security researchers believed the malware was the work of the Russian government. In August 2014, Symantec said it was likely that a state-sponsored group was behind the Turla attacks.

The cyber group focuses on satellite Internet providers located in the Middle East and Africa, Kaspersky said. The firm also mentioned several other developments, including the Blue Termite APT, the Gaza cyber-gang, ‘Xcodeghost' malware in the App Store, and CoinVault ransomware attacks.

Online banking malware attacks retreated slightly globally. When SCMagazine.com asked about the trend, Kaspersky's David Emm responded via email that a large number of cybercriminals were arrested in the last year and in the first half of this year in Russia and neighboring countries. “Many financial criminals are Russian speaking,” wrote Emm, “and the activity of LEA could influence the reduction of detections.”

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