SAN CARLOS, Calif., Nov. 23, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP) today revealed the
number of malware attacks increased in October, as the company released its monthly Global Threat Index, a ranking of the most
prevalent malware families attacking organizations’ networks.
Check Point’s Threat Intelligence Research Team found that both the number of active malware families and number of attacks
increased by 5% during the period, pushing the number of attacks on business networks to near peak levels, as seen earlier this
year. Locky ransomware attacks continued to rise, moving it up from third to second place, while the Zeus banking trojan moved up
two spots, returning it to the top three. The reason for Locky’s continued growth is the constant variation and expansion of its
distribution mechanism, which is primarily through spams emails. Its creators are continually changing the type of files used for
downloading the ransomware, including .doc, .xls and .wsf files, as well as making significant structural changes to the spam
emails. The actual ransomware itself is nothing exceptional, but cyber criminals are investing a lot of time into maximizing the
number of machines that become infected by it. For the seventh consecutive month, HummingBad, an android malware that establishes a
persistent rootkit to carry out an array of malicious purposes, remained the most common malware used to attack mobile devices.
Once again Conficker retained its first place position as the world’s most prevalent malware, responsible for 17% of recognized
attacks. Both second placed Locky, which only started its distribution in February of this year, and third placed Zeus, were
responsible for 5% of known attacks.
- ↔ Conficker – Worm that allows remote operations and malware download. The infected machine is controlled
by a botnet, which contacts its Command & Control server to receive instructions.
- ↑ Locky – Ransomware, which started its distribution in February 2016, and spreads mainly through spam
emails containing a downloader disguised as a Word or Zip file attachment, which then downloads and installs the malware that
encrypts the user files.
- ↑ Zeus – Trojan that targets Windows platforms and is often used to steal banking information by
man-in-the-browser keystroke logging and form grabbing.
Mobile malware families continued to pose a significant threat to businesses, with 15 of the top 200 malware families targeting
mobile devices. The three most common mobile families were:
- ↔ HummingBad – Android malware that establishes a persistent rootkit on the device, installs fraudulent
applications and enables additional malicious activity such as installing a key-logger, stealing credentials and bypassing
encrypted email containers used by enterprises.
- ↔ Triada – Modular Backdoor for Android, which grants super-user privileges to downloaded malware, as helps
it to get embedded into system processes. Triada has also been seen spoofing URLs loaded in the browser.
- ↑ XcodeGhost – A compromised version of the iOS developer platform, Xcode. This unofficial version of Xcode
was altered so that it injects malicious code into any app that was developed and compiled using it. The injected code sends app
information to a Command & Control server, allowing the infected app to read the device clipboard.
Nathan Shuchami, Head of Threat Prevention at Check Point explained, “With the number of attacks and malware families
increasing, the scale of the challenge organizations face in ensuring their networks remain secure is tremendous. The fact the top
ten malware remained virtually the same as September suggests that cyber criminals have enjoyed a considerable amount of success
with these attack methods, signaling to organizations that they need to proactively respond to protect their critical business
assets. It is particularly concerning that a malware family as established and well known as Conficker is so effective, suggesting
that organizations aren’t using the latest, multi-layered defenses.”
“To protect themselves, organizations must take a comprehensive approach and have advanced threat prevention measures on
networks, endpoints and mobile devices to stop malware at the pre-infection stage, such as Check Point’s SandBlast™ Zero-Day
Protection and Mobile Threat Prevention solutions, to ensure that they are adequately safeguarded from the latest threats,” added
Shuchami.
Check Point’s threat index is based on threat intelligence drawn from its ThreatCloud World Cyber Threat Map, which tracks how
and where cyberattacks are taking place worldwide in real time. The Threat Map is powered by Check Point’s ThreatCloudTM
intelligence, the largest collaborative network to fight cybercrime, which delivers threat data and attack trends from a global
network of threat sensors. The ThreatCloud database holds over 250 million addresses analyzed for bot discovery, over 11 million
malware signatures and over 5.5 million infected websites, and identifies millions of malware types daily.
Check Point’s Threat Prevention Resources are available at: http://www.checkpoint.com/threat-prevention-resources/index.html
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INVESTOR CONTACT: Kip E. Meintzer Check Point Software Technologies +1.650.628.2040 ir@checkpoint.com MEDIA CONTACT: Emilie Beneitez Lefebvre Check Point Software Technologies Tel: +44 (0) 7785 381 302 press@checkpoint.com
