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430,000 users affected by banking Trojan malware: Report by Kaspersky

Kaspersky researchers recently discovered that over 430,000 users faced issues with the malware which was aimed at stealing f
Kaspersky researchers recently discovered that over 430,000 users faced issues with the malware which was aimed at stealing finances, cryptocurrencies, and web-money in the first half of 2019.

Kaspersky researchers recently discovered that over 430,000 users faced issues with the malware which was aimed at stealing finances, cryptocurrencies, and web-money in the first half of 2019. More than 30% of the affected users are corporates, and this number has doubled from what it was in 2018.

These malware are known as banking trojans, which are aimed at stealing a person’s finances and financial data along with access to their financial organization’s assets and machines. Kaspersky releases such data reports every year to let people know that the financial sector is most prone to such cyber attacks, and this malware is still active.

The most common way for these attack vectors is by using spam emails and phishing web pages. In the first half of 2019, researchers at Kaspersky have discovered about 339,000 phishing attacks from web pages. The web pages look like legitimate websites, but they are created to aim at stealing the credentials, bank card details, and other types of sensitive information of a user.

Researchers have also compiled a list of most prevalent banking Trojan families used in these cyber attacks on corporate users. About 40% of the threats on users came from RTM banking Trojan- one of the most dangerous banking malware for business. Followed by this is Emotet, which caused 15% of the threats. This threat can cause a lot of damage to the system as once it enters the system, it can distribute itself within the system. After this comes the Trickster, with 12% damage rate to the users.

On the other hand, the story was different for private users. Zbot malware was behind 26% of the attacks that took place on the system. They further added that with numbers like these, they could only expect a rise in the number of attacks in the second half of 2019. The number usually rises after the holiday season as people are using their devices less during the season and everyone should be careful with the banking and finance-related operations.

Experts at Kaspersky suggest the organizations should introduce cybersecurity awareness training programs for the employees and teach them how to differentiate between an email threat and a phishing website.

Forbidding installation of softwares from unknown sources and keeping the latest updates and patches of softwares that are being used should be looked after as well. All the security updates should be installed and updated as soon as they are available.

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