Corporate users are the main target of banking malware in 2019

In 2019, 773,943 Kaspersky solution users were attacked by banking “Trojans”. Of these users, one third (35.1%) belonged to the business sector.

These are among the findings of Kaspersky’s analysis of the economic threat landscape last year.

Banking “Trojans” or “bankers” are one of the most common tools for cybercriminals, as they focus on stealing money. They usually search for users’ login details for electronic payments and electronic banking systems, extracting one-time passwords, and then transfer that data to the attackers.

One-third of these attacks in 2019 targeted corporate users, an increase over the percentage (24%-25%) that remained fairly stable over the past three years. According to experts, the rationale is clear: B2B attacks could not only gain access to bank accounts or payment system accounts, but, through employee exposure, could also jeopardize a company’s financial resources.

The data collected also shows that Russia remained the number one target for 2019, representing more than 30% of global users who were attacked by malicious banking software. They are followed by Germany (over 7%) and China (over 3%).

“While the total number of attacks with banking Trojans decreased in 2019, the growing interest in corporate user data shows that we are not yet seeing a cessation of financial threats. Therefore, we urge everyone to be careful when conducting financial activities online through computers. While we are at the forefront of remote work during the pandemic of the new coronavirus, it is especially important not to underestimate the unbridled desire of criminals to steal money.“

said Oleg Kupreev, a security expert at Kaspersky.

The main findings of the report are:

Phishing:

• In 2019, the rate of “phishing” attacks of an economic nature increased from 44.7% of all “phishing” cases to 51.4%.

• Nearly one in three attempts to visit a “phishing” page blocked by Kaspersky products was related to banking “phishing” (27%).

• The percentage of attacks related to “phishing” attacks on payment systems and online stores amounted to almost 17% and over 7.5% respectively in 2019. Sizes almost at the same levels as in 2018.

• The percentage of “phishing” financial attacks faced by “Mac” users decreased slightly, representing 54%.

Banking malware (Windows):

• In 2019, the number of users who were attacked with banking “Trojans” was 773,943; size decreased compared to 889,452 attacks in 2018.

• 35.1% of users who were attacked with malicious banking software were corporate users; an increase from the 24.1% of 2018.

• Users in Russia, Germany and China were more likely to be attacked by malicious banking software.

Android banking malware:

• In 2019, the number of users who faced Android malware decreased to just over 675,000 from about 1.8 million.

• Russia, South Africa and Australia were the countries with the highest percentage of users who were attacked by Android banking malware.

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