SAN CARLOS, Calif., Jan. 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP), a leading provider of cyber-security solutions globally, has published its latest Global Threat Index for December 2018. The index reveals that SmokeLoader, a second-stage downloader known to researchers since 2011, rose 11 places in December to enter the Index’s top 10 at ninth place. After a surge of activity in the Ukraine and Japan, its global impact grew by 20. SmokeLoader is mainly used to load other malware, such as Trickbot Banker, AZORult Infostealer and Panda Banker.
Cryptomining malware continues to lead the Index, with Coinhive retaining its number one position for the 13th month in a row and impacting 12% of organizations worldwide. XMRig was the second most prevalent malware with a global reach of 8%, closely followed by the JSEcoin miner in third with a global impact of 7%. Organizations continue to be targeted by cryptominers, despite an overall drop in value across all cryptocurrencies in 2018.
The report also showed banking Trojans rising up the index, with Ramnit, a banking Trojan that steals login credentials and other sensitive data, returned to the top 10 this month in 8th place.
Maya Horowitz, Threat Intelligence and Research Group Manager at Check Point commented: “December’s report saw SmokeLoader appearing in the top 10 for the first time. Its sudden surge in prevalence reinforces the growing trend towards damaging, multi-purpose malware in the Global Threat Index, with the top 10 divided equally between cryptominers and malware that uses multiple methods to distribute numerous threats. The diversity of the malware in the Index means that it is critical that enterprises employ a multi-layered cybersecurity strategy that protects against both established malware families and brand new threats.”
December 2018’s Top 3 ‘Most Wanted’ Malware:
*The arrows relate to the change in rank compared to the previous month.
Triada, the modular backdoor for Android, has retained first place in the top mobile malware list. Guerilla has climbed to second place, replacing Hiddad. Meanwhile, Lotoor has replaced Android banking Trojan and info-stealer Lokibot in third place.
December’s Top 3 ‘Most Wanted’ Mobile Malware:
Check Point researchers also analyzed the most exploited cyber vulnerabilities. Holding on to first place was CVE-2017-7269, whose global impact also rose slightly to 49%, compared to 47% in November. In second place was OpenSSL TLS DTLS Heartbeat Information Disclosure, with a global impact of 42% closely followed by PHPMyAdmin Misconfiguration Code Injection with an impact of 41%.
December’s Top 3 ‘Most Exploited’ vulnerabilities:
Check Point’s Global Threat Impact Index and its ThreatCloud Map is powered by Check Point’s ThreatCloud intelligence, the largest collaborative network to fight cybercrime which delivers threat data and attack trends from a global network of threat sensors. The ThreatCloud database holds over 250 million addresses analyzed for bot discovery, more than 11 million malware signatures and over 5.5 million infected websites, and identifies millions of malware types daily.
* The complete list of the top 10 malware families in December can be found on the Check Point Blog: http://blog.checkpoint.com/2019/01/14/december-2018-most-wanted-malware-smokeloader-crypto-malware-ransomware/
Check Point’s Threat Prevention Resources are available at: http://www.checkpoint.com/threat-prevention-resources/index.html
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About Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (www.checkpoint.com) is a leading provider of cyber security solutions to governments and corporate enterprises globally. Its solutions protect customers from cyber-attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware and other types of attacks. Check Point offers a multilevel security architecture that defends enterprises’ cloud, network and mobile device held information, plus the most comprehensive and intuitive one point of control security management system. Check Point protects over 100,000 organizations of all sizes.
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