BlackBerry Reports 40 Percent Increase in New Malware Used in Cyberattacks
5.2 attacks per minute detected between January and
"Each iteration of this report highlights startling new trends: novel malware is growing with no signs of stopping, and threat actors are highly motivated, be it for financial gain or to create chaos," said
Highlights from the latest
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The United States Severely Outnumbers the World in Cyberattacks: According to our internal telemetry, 82 percent of cyberattacks targeted the
U.S. during this reporting period. Fifty-four percent of those attacks contained unique (new) malware, meaning attacks contained malware that was previously not observed. -
Attacks Based on Novel Malware Increased by 40 Percent Per Minute:
BlackBerry observed a 40 percent per-minute increase in novel hashes (unique malware), compared to the previous reporting period. This represents an average of 7,500 unique malware samples per day targeting our customer base, or 5.2 per minute. - Commercial Enterprise Threats Slowly but Surely Rise: 36 percent of all threats targeted commercial enterprises (including retail, manufacturing, automotive and professional services), a three percent increase from the last reporting period. Yet, this sector saw a 10 percent jump in instances of new malware. Commercial enterprise remains a target for threat actors as they grow more sophisticated, often using social engineering to obtain account credentials and distribute malware.
- CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) are Rapidly Weaponized in All Forms of Malware – Especially Ransomware and Infostealers: CVEs provide a framework for identifying, standardizing and publicizing known security vulnerabilities and exposures. Fifty six percent of the 8,900 CVEs reported during this reporting period were given a severity score of seven out of a possible 10. This represents a three percent increase from the previous reporting period.
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Despite Takedowns, Ransomware Groups Wreak Havoc: Globally, the top three ransomware groups active this period were LockBit,
Hunters International , and 8Base.
These threats will continue to be underpinned by a politically charged year globally, with disinformation and deepfake campaigns continuing to be pervasive across social media.
Based on its data analysis, the
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