Almost every global firm faced mobile malware threat in 2020: Check Point

There has been a staggering 845 per cent increase in Mobile attacks since October 2020, in India, says the Check Point report

Due to the untimely Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020, most of the companies had no choice to operate business and conduct meetings virtually through video conferences.

Prior to the pandemic, the concept of Work From Home (WHF) was limited to a minor percentage of the workforce and the companies were able to allocate budget to set up a workstation at home. But, the unprecedented lockdown forced all employees to work with whatever available at home and was less secure compared to the office computers.

This attracted hackers to target big corporates. Using phishing techniques on employees with emails and they were able to infiltrate into the companies' internal communication network and introduced malware to take control and demand ransom. Some include suffering Maze ransomware attack (on Cognizant), REvil, Sodinokibi, NetWalker, Nemty and others.

Now, it has come to light that almost 97% of organisations around the world suffered some type of mobile threats from several attack vectors, says the latest report by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

"As we have seen in 2020, the mobile threat landscape has continued to expand with almost every organization now having experienced an attack,” said Neatsun Ziv, VP Threat Prevention at Check Point Software.

“And there are more complex threats on the horizon. Cybercriminals are continuing to evolve and adapt their techniques to exploit our growing reliance on mobiles. Enterprises need to adopt mobile security solutions which seamlessly protect devices from today’s advanced cyber threats, and users should be careful to use only apps from official app stores to minimize their risk," Ziv noted.

Here are the highlights of the Check Point's Mobile Security Report:

1) Last year, almost every company experienced at least one mobile malware attack in 2020. Around 93 per cent of these attacks originated in a device network. They tried to trick users into installing a malicious payload via infected websites or URLs, or to steal users’ credentials
2) 46 per cent of organizations had at least one employee download a malicious mobile application that threatened their organization’s networks and data in 2020
3) At least 40 percent of the world’s mobile devices are inherently vulnerable to cyberattacks due to flaws in their chipsets and need urgent patching
4) The report noted the significant rise of around 15% in banking Trojan activity, where users’ mobile banking credentials are at risk of being stolen. Threat actors circulated mobile malware, including Mobile Remote Access Trojans (MRATs), banking trojans, and premium dialers, often hiding the malware in apps that claim to offer COVID-19 related information.
5) Individuals’ mobiles are a very attractive target for various APT groups, such as Iran’s Rampant Kitten, which has conducted elaborate and sophisticated targeted attacks to spy on users and steal sensitive data
6) There's a new and highly significant attack, in which threat actors used a large international corporation’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) system to distribute malware to more than 75 per cent of its managed mobile devices – exploiting the solution, which is intended to control how mobiles are used within the enterprise.
7) There has been a staggering 845 per cent increase in Mobile attacks since October 2020, in India
8) The total number of mobile attacks in India in Oct 2020 was 1,345
9) The total number of mobile attacks in India in March 2021 was 12,719

With 60% of workers forecast to be on mobile by 2024, it is imperitive for the companies to invest resources in improving cyber security.

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