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Malware Activity Slows, But Attacks More Sophisticated: Report

April 10, 2018

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Malware activity declined in the first quarter of 2018, with both detections for ransomware and cryptominers lower than the last quarter of 2018, according to anti-malware vendor Malwarebytes. However, major reductions in consumer instances mask an increase in both activities against businesses, the company says.

Consumer cryptominers dropped from a peak of 25 million detections in October 2017 to 16 million detections in March 2018. Business detections spiked in February 2017 to around 550,000 detections dropping down to nearly 400,000 in March — a downturn that may prove temporary due to “a shift in attack strategy”.

Ransomware detections have continued the downward trend that started in the middle of last year. Again, however, the large 34% decrease in consumer detections hides a 27% increase in business detections from the last quarter of 2107 to the first quarter of 2018.

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