It was the third most popular malware used in attacks against organizations in Q1 this year, and the second most used type of malware in attacks on individuals (seen in more than a quarter, 28% of such attacks), shows a Q1 2021 report Opens a new window by Positive Technologies, a cybersecurity firm.ĭmitry Galov, Security Researcher at Kaspersky, a cybersecurity firm, explains that spyware is not the type of malware used en masse. Spyware is one of the most popular types of malware. Though the report doesn’t divulge details about how many business heads were targeted, a June 2020 report Opens a new window by Atlas VPN found 46% of C-level executives were targeted by spyware just before the pandemic started.
According to a July 2020 report by cybersecurity firm Avast, the use of spyware increased 51% QoQ by June 2020. What is alarming is that attackers are getting better at covering their tracks and avoiding detection by anti-virus solutions. The use of spyware to keep an eye on a person of interest is not new. The UN report Opens a new window pointed the finger at Pegasus, spyware created and sold by Israel-based NSO Group, which was found on the phones of hundreds of people in another investigation conducted by Amnesty International’s cybersecurity team. In January 2020, a United Nations (UN) probe found that then Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ smartphone was targeted by spyware, and several megabytes of data was exfiltrated from it over months. In this article, cybersecurity experts explain how spyware - the most popular type of malware, can be used against organizations and how IT can watch out for the warning signs of surveillance.
An attacker only has to plant spyware on a device to pave the way for larger corporate espionage or intellectual property (IP) theft. Amid the ongoing outcry over the use of Pegasus spyware for surveillance upon hundreds of high-profile individuals, there looms a threat that can be even more menacing for enterprises.
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