Quick Heal Tech detects over 180 million Windows threats in Apr-Jun

Security software firm Quick Heal Technologies and its enterprise arm Seqrite detected 180 million cyber threats in the second quarter of 2018 on Indian computers, according to a joint quarterly threat report released by the firms.

According to the report, more than 180 million threats were detected on Windows devices of individual and enterprise users between April and June 2018.

Among the various incidents, security experts identified a spike in the EternalBlue exploit, which was used for the WannaCry ransomware attack, one of the biggest global cybersecurity incidents ever seen, the report said.

Highest number of incidents, more than 74 million, were detected by the two firms in May, while April and June followed with 55 million and 51 million detections, respectively.

"On a daily basis, the brands detected more than 2 million malware, 16,000 ransomware, 13,000 cryptomining malware, 141,000  exploits, and 40,488 potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) and adware. All security incidents were successfully resolved by Quick Heal and Seqrite," the report said.

According to the report, the Trojan Horse families retained its position as the most dominant malware in the reported quarter 2018, registering a quarter-on-quarter growth of 4 per cent over the statistics recorded in previous quarter.

"Cybercriminals are at a completely different level today than they were a few years ago. They are using novel technologies to drive increasingly-complex attacks and are targeting larger user bases. The latest Threat Report highlights this risk that individuals and businesses in India currently face with this evolution of the threat landscape," Sanjay Katkar, Joint MD and Chief Technology Officer, Quick Heal Technologies, said.

The companies detected a significant increase in the number of ransomware attacks targeting the Master Boot Record (MBR) of infected devices and cryptomining. MBR is information in hard disk vital for loading or starting of computer.

"Individual users and businesses across India need to understand the massive risk that they are exposed to at present. Ignorance is not a viable cybersecurity strategy," Katkar said.

According to the report, rise of cryptojacking is one of the most worrying security trends and warned about it becoming an 'advanced threat' as it is the new source of getting direct monetary benefits to cyber criminals.

"Cryptojacking attacks remain undetected for a long time and can often be used as a platform to launch other complex attacks...over 3 million cryptojacking hits were detected till May 2018, with the number of active mobile cryptojacking variants increasing to 25," the report said.