According to a new report, every third (37.8%) of PC banking malware attacks targeted corporate users in 2021, up nearly 14% from 2018.
While there was an increase in threats to financial organizations on a global scale in 2021, the downward trend in PC and mobile malware that began in 2020 continued.
According to cyber security firm Kaspersky, the number of users that encountered PC malware reduced by 35% from 625,364 in 2020 to 405,985 in 2021.
Oleg Kupreev, a Security Expert at Kaspersky said “We have observed cybercriminals actively targeting our corporate users. This is a concerning issue since once a cybercriminal penetrates just one computer in a corporate network, it poses a huge threat not only to the targeted device but to the victim’s colleagues and the organization as a whole,”
In 2021, the financial threats landscape changed for the better, with the overall number of users affected by malware dropping significantly including PC malware dropping by 35%.
Cyberattacks are still a threat, especially to corporate networks.
Corporate users’ share of banking malware attacks climbed by over 2% between 2020 and 2021, and by a staggering 13.7 percent points between 2018 and 2021.
Furthermore, only four malware families were responsible for the attacks, which affected around half of all users.
While Zbot remained in the spot of number one used malware among financial cybercriminals, SpyEye rose from the eighth most common banking malware, with a 3.4% share in 2020, to the second most common last year, with a 12.2% share.
At the same time, Emotet (9.3%), identified by Europol as “the world’s most dangerous malware” saw a five-percentage-point reduction between 2020 and 2021, according to the report.