Coin mining attacks are expected to increase at local businesses, driven by financial gains and increased anonymity for cyber criminals.
This is according to Russell Young, Tech Lead at Trend Micro, speaking yesterday at the Trend Micro Q2 Security Update in Johannesburg.
Young said that while attacks such as business e-mail compromise (BEC), hosted malicious URLs, zero-day vulnerabilities, exploit kit attacks, and banking malware have all increased in the second quarter of 2018, coin mining attacks have emerged as the new big threat to local firms.
Crypto mining malware, also known as cryptojacking, refers to software that is installed on a company's computer, which then uses the machine's resources for crypto-currency mining, often without the knowledge of the user or the IT department.
"As crypto-currencies continue to rise in popularity, and with Bitcoin expected to gain stability, we can expect to see accelerated use of mining malware during the course of the year, with more cyber criminals looking to hijack systems of local firms."
E-mail compromise
The world's oldest threat, e-mail, continues to be the number one threat vector, Young said.
"In April, BEC continued to be the number one threat to businesses globally. In sub-Saharan Africa, SA is way ahead, with Kenya and Nigeria falling closely behind.
"Globally, the US and Australia are tied at the top spot, while the UK, which had the most number of BEC threats last month, is now ranked third. April also saw Germany's rank dropping to the fifth spot with only 1% of BEC attempts."
Cyber criminals, according to Young, were in April increasingly seen to be impersonating top executives, tricking employees into wiring them money.He said exploit kit attacks were also seen to be dropping off in April.
South Africa had the highest number of banking malware detections, followed by Nigeria and Kenya. The US had the highest number of detections globally, followed by Japan and China.
Mobile targets
According to Trend Micro's Mobile App Reputation Service data, unique mobile ransomware attacks increased by 7% in April, and SLocker, a type of mobile ransomware, was the most widely used tool.
Malware affecting iOS systems meanwhile saw a drop by 72%, reported Trend Micro. It said while the iOS Jailbreak tool is still the most commonly detected tool, it had also seen a drop in usage in April.
Young said that most organisations didn't invest enough in security -- or early enough -- and it was only when a vulnerability or breach was discovered that they started spending money.
"Throwing money at a security threat is not the right approach, because they're just throwing technology at the problem and not actually fixing the controls within the environment," he said, adding that it was as important to practise good security policies within the company.
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