In its third quarter (Q3) IT Threat Evolution report, Kaspersky Lab has published the details of the key security incidents of the quarter.

Using statistics from the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), which obtains information from millions of Kaspersky Lab product users in 213 countries, the report sheds light on the increase in mobile threats, the attempted theft of money from online bank accounts and targeted cyberattacks in the evolving threat landscape.

According to Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), in the third quarter of 2015 overall 45.3% of KSN participants in Nigeria encountered malware that spread in local networks, via USBs and storage disks, while 13.8% faced cyberthreats emanating from the Internet. This puts the country on the 64th and 128th place worldwide by the percentage of users who encountered the two types of malware.

Globally according to KSN data, Kaspersky Lab solutions detected and repelled a total of 235.4 million malicious attacks from online resources located all over the world. Kaspersky Lab’s web antivirus detected 38.2 million unique malicious objects: scripts, exploits, executable files, etc. – this is 46.9% higher than in Q2. There were 5.68 million registered notifications about attempted malware infections that aim to steal money via online access to bank accounts.

The overall trend so far for 2015 has continued in Q3: exploits for Adobe Flash Player and Internet Explorer are most popular with cybercriminals.

Mobile threats:
323,374 new malicious mobile programs were detected by Kaspersky Lab mobile security products in Q3. This is a 10.8% increase on Q2 2015 and a 3.1-fold increase since Q1 2015.
There were more than 1.5 million malicious packages installed on mobiles during the quarter, 1.5 times more than in the previous quarter.

Displaying adverts to users has remained the main method of making money from mobile threats. During the quarter, Kaspersky Lab observed a growing number of programs that used advertising in this way. They often root the device of a victim and use superuser privileges, making it very difficult to combat them. In Q3 2015, these Trojans accounted for more than half the most popular mobile malware.

Web-based financial attacks:
In Q3 2015, Kaspersky Lab’s solutions blocked almost 626,000 attempts to launch malware capable of stealing money via access to users’ online banking. This number is 17.2% lower than in the second quarter of the year, although it is a 5.7% increase since Q3 2014.

During the quarter, there were 5.68 million notifications about attempted malware infections to steal money from users via online access to bank accounts.

In Q3 2015, countries with the largest number of users attacked by banking Trojans were Austria (5% of all Kaspersky Lab users in this country encountered this threat), Singapore (4.2%) and Turkey (3%). Most of the countries in the top 10 have significant numbers of online banking users, attracting cybercriminals.

“The developments in Q3 demonstrate that the global threat landscape is continuing to evolve at a fast pace. Malicious mobile programs are on the rise, and with 5.6 million cases of attempted theft from online bank accounts, and cybercriminals continually developing sophisticated attacks, the use of high quality cybersecurity products has never been more important. It’s vital that all those using the Internet – both individuals and organisations – protect themselves from these growing threats,” says David Emm, Principal Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis team.

African Press Organization

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