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Trend Micro: Ransomware targets banking sector

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 20 Sept 2021

The banking industry has been disproportionately affected by ransomware, experiencing a 1 318% year-on-year increase in these attacks in the first half of this year.


This was revealed by Trend Micro, who says it has blocked 40.9 billion e-mail threats, malicious files and URLs for customers in the first half of 2021, a 47% year-on-year increase.

According to the company, ransomware is still the greatest scourge, as bad actors go after high-profile victims. “Working with third parties to gain access to targeted networks, they used advanced persistent threat tools and techniques to steal and encrypt victims’ data.”

Over and above ransomware, Trend Micro says business e-mail compromise attacks grew by 4%, possibly as a result of new COVID-19 opportunities for attackers. In fact, 164 malicious apps related to COVID-19 scams were detected, 54% of which impersonated TikTok.

The most detected malware turned out to be crypto-currency miners, which surged ahead of WannaCry and Web shells in recent months.

Moreover, the Zero Day Initiative detected 770 vulnerabilities, a tiny (2%) drop from the same period last year. The Zero Day Initiative rogram was acquired by Trend Micro as  part of the HP TippingPoint acquisition in 2015.

According to Jon Clay, VP of threat intelligence for Trend Micro, effectively mitigating cyber risk means understanding the scale, complexity and unique characteristics of the threat landscape.

“In addition to comprehensive protection against fast-evolving threats like ransomware, phishing and BEC [business e-mail compromise} that Trend Micro offers, our biannual roundup reports provide global organisations and stakeholders invaluable insights to help them build a more secure connected world.”

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