Check Point Software, the largest pure-play security vendor globally, has revealed the most common malware families used to attack organisations’ network and mobile devices in Australia and New Zealand.
Check Point identified more than 1,400 different malware families globally during February. For the second month running, the Conficker, Sality, and Dorkbot families were the three most commonly used malware variants, collectively for 39 per cent of all attacks globally in February.
Check Point’s research also revealed the most prevalent mobile malware during February 2016, and once again attacks against Android devices were significantly more common than iOS. The top three mobile malware families were:
Hummingbird: Android malware that establishes a persistant rootkit on the device, installs fradulent applications, and enables additional malicious activity such as installing a key-logger, stealing credentials and bypassing encrypted email containers used by enterprises.
AndroRAT: Malware that is able to pack itself with a legitimate mobile application and install without the user’s knowledge, allowing a hacker full remote control of an Android device.
Xinyin: Observed as a Trojan-Clicker that performs Click Fraud on Chinese ad sites.
According to Nathan Shuchami, Head of Threat Prevention at Check Point, “The rapid rise in attacks using Hummingbad highlights the real and present danger posed to business networks by unsecured mobile devices and the malware that targets them. Organisations must start to protect their mobile devices with the same robust security as traditional PCs and networks as a matter of urgency.”
Australia and New Zealand Malware Concerns
Malware has recently affected Australia’s big four banks mobile apps and although Android will continue to be a security concern, it is anticipated that consumers will experience more attacks on iOS because iPhones and iPads continue to gain popularly globally, making them prime, high-value targets for cybercriminals.
David de Laine, ANZ Regional Managing Director said, “Android malware will also become even more evasive. We’ll start stenographic methods being used in the wild, like decoding executable payloads from strings hidden in image files. Stealth methods like this (in combination with obfuscation capabilities of off-the-shelf-packers and custom encryption) will get much more complicated in 2016 as detection methods get smarter and more accurate.