Cyber threat activity continues to grow in Q3

New data from managed security service provider Nuspire reveals large increases in overall threat activity in the second quarter of this year continued throughout Q3, with additional growth in both exploits and botnets.

There's been a 236.22 percent jump in Kryptik variants -- a type of trojan malware distributed to victims through phishing campaigns, the goal being to steal information, including cryptocurrency wallets, files and SSH keys.

"What we're seeing is a continued escalation of threat activity as cyber criminals pull all the levers at their disposal to determine what works best and brings in the most profit," says JR Cunningham, chief security officer at Nuspire. "Some of the most popular ways threat actors are succeeding are by classic methods such as phishing and exploiting well-known vulnerabilities. It's incumbent on organizations to patch their systems, ensure they're staying current on the latest vulnerabilities and promote a culture of security awareness through effective employee training."

The report also shows an increase of 35.39 percent in botnet activity, mostly attributed to Torpig Mebroot, a banking trojan designed to scrape and collect credit card and payment information from infected devices. Remote access trojans (RATs) remain popular with threat actors too, with the report indicating increased activity from RATs like ZeroAccess and Xtreme RAT.

Vulnerabilities, particularly those containing a remote code execution, also continue to be a go-to target for cybercriminals. In Q3, VMware Workspace ONE Access and Identity Manager as well as the Zimbra Collaboration Suite saw heightened activity.

"Data from the threat report paints a clear picture -- with over 55 million cyberattack methods in play last quarter alone, the security landscape is dangerous and omnipresent," says Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst. "Now more than ever, organizations should make cybersecurity a top priority, as it can support and enable the overall success of the business. This is especially critical as the cybersecurity defenses face strong headwinds due to geopolitical factors like the pandemic, economic turmoil and the war in the Ukraine."

You can get the full report on the Nuspire site.

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