BlackBerry Limited has released its latest Global Threat Intelligence Report, revealing that BlackBerry cyber security solutions detected and stopped 3.1 million cyber attacks (37,000 per day) in the first quarter of 2024.
Between January and March 2024, BlackBerry detected 630,000 malicious hashes, representing a 40 percent increase from its previous reporting period. 60 percent of attacks targeting industry were directed at critical infrastructure, including government, healthcare, financial, and communication industries, of which 40 percent targeted the financial sector.
Highlights from the report include:
The United States severely outnumbers the world in cyber attacks: 82 percent of cyber attacks targeted the US during this reporting period. 54 percent of those attacks contained unique (new) malware, meaning attacks contained malware that was previously not observed.
Attacks based on novel malware increased by 40 percent per minute: BlackBerry observed a 40 percent per-minute increase in novel hashes (unique malware), compared to the previous reporting period. This represents an average of 7,500 unique malware samples per day targeting our customer base, or 5.2 per minute.
Commercial enterprise threats slowly but surely rise: 36 percent of all threats targeted commercial enterprises (including retail, manufacturing, automotive and professional services), a three percent increase from the last reporting period. Yet, this sector saw a 10 percent jump in instances of new malware. Commercial enterprise remains a target for threat actors as they grow more sophisticated, often using social engineering to obtain account credentials and distribute malware.
CVEs (common vulnerabilities and exposures) are rapidly weaponised in all forms of malware – especially ransomware and infostealers: CVEs provide a framework for identifying, standardising, and publicising known security vulnerabilities and exposures. 56 percent of the 8,900 CVEs reported during this reporting period were given a severity score of seven out of a possible 10. This represents a three percent increase from the previous reporting period.
Despite takedowns, ransomware groups continue to wreak havoc: globally, the top three ransomware groups active this period were LockBit, Hunters International, and 8Base.
