Hello All!   
      
    2019 State of Malware report: Trojans and cryptominers dominate threat   
   landscape   
      
   Posted: January 23, 2019 by Wendy Zamora   
   Last updated: January 21, 2019   
      
   Each quarter, the Malwarebytes Labs team gathers to share intel, statistics,   
   and analysis of the tactics and techniques made popular by cybercriminals over   
   the previous three months. At the end of the year, we synthesize this data   
   into one all-encompassing report-the State of Malware report-that aims to   
   follow the most important threats, distribution methods, and other trends that   
   shaped the threat landscape.   
      
   Our 2019 State of Malware report is here, and it's a doozy.   
      
   In our research, which covers January to November 2018 and compares it against   
   the previous period in 2017, we found that two major malware categories   
   dominated the scene, with cryptominers positively drenching users at the back   
   end of 2017 and into the first half of 2018, and information-stealers in the   
   form of Trojans taking over for the second half of the year.   
      
   But that's not all we discovered.   
      
   The 2019 State of Malware report follows the top 10 global threats for   
   consumers and businesses, as well as top threats by region and by corporate   
   industry verticals. In addition, we followed noteworthy distribution   
   techniques for the year, as well as popular scams. Some of our findings   
   include:   
      
       In 2018, we saw a shift in ransomware attack techniques from malvertising   
   and exploits that deliver ransomware as a payload to targeted, manual attacks.   
   The shotgun approach was replaced with brute force, as witnessed in the most   
   successful SamSam campaigns of the year.   
      
       Malware authors pivoted in the second half of 2018 to target organizations   
   over consumers, recognizing that the bigger payoff was in making victims out   
   of businesses instead of individuals. Overall business detections of malware   
   rose significantly over the last year-79 percent to be exact-and primarily due   
   to the increase in backdoors, miners, spyware, and information stealers.   
      
       The fallout from the ShadowBrokers' leak of NSA exploits in 2017   
   continued, as cybercriminals used SMB vulnerabilities EternalBlue and   
   EternalRomance to spread dangerous and sophisticated Trojans, such as Emotet   
   and TrickBot. In fact, information stealers were the top consumer and business   
   threat in 2018, as well as the top regional threat for North America, Latin   
   America, and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).   
      
   Finally, our Labs team stared into its crystal ball and predicted top trends   
   for 2019. Of particular note are the following:   
      
       Attacks designed to avoid detection, like soundloggers, will slip into the   
   wild.   
      
       Artificial Intelligence will be used in the creation of malicious   
   executables.   
      
       Movements such as Bring Your Own Security (BYOS) to work will grow as   
   trust declines.   
      
       IoT botnets will come to a device near you.   
      
   To learn more about top threats and trends in 2018 and our predictions for   
   2019, download our report from the link below.   
   2019 State of Malware Report   
      
      
   Regards,   
      
   Roger    
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna - (1:3828/7)