The Latest Intelligence page has been refreshed through April 2016, providing the most up-to-date analysis of cybersecurity threats, trends, and insights concerning malware, spam, and other potentially harmful business risks. Here are some key takeaways from this latest batch of intelligence.
The Nuclear toolkit jumped to the top of web attack toolkits in April, comprising 42 percent of all web attacks. This toolkit has proved popular with ransomware peddlers who use it to spread their wares. The Spartan toolkit, which has topped the list of web attack toolkits for the last few months, dropped out of the top five this month. The Angler toolkit remained in second place, while RIG moved up into the top five this month.
Figure 1. Nuclear topped the list of exploit kits responsible for web attacks in April
Manual sharing continues to dominate social media scams, though it declined 3.08 percentage points from March. Fake Offer scams increased in April by 3.36 percentage points, up from 17.34 percent in March to 20.7 percent. Like Jacking scams also rose again in April, now comprising 6.85 percent of social media scams.
Figure 2. Manual sharing topped the list of social media scam types in April
The email malware rate declined to 1 in 222 emails in April. This is the first time that this rate has dropped below 1 in 200 emails since last October. Email malware rates also declined across industries, as well as organizations sizes, during the month of April.
The Construction sector had the highest spam rate in April, up 1.2 percentage points to 55.9 percent. At 55.5 percent, the Mining sector dropped to second place, down 0.7 percentage points, while Manufacturing came in third at 54.1 percent. The overall spam rate declined slightly in April, from 52.9 percent in March to 52.7 percent.
The phishing rate declined in April, dropping to one in 3,001 emails. The Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing sector saw the highest phishing rates in April, at one in 1,428 emails. However, this is down from March. With one in 2,256 emails, organizations with 1501-2500 employees had the highest phishing rate during April.
These are just a few items that stood out during the month. Be sure to check out the Latest Intelligence for April 2016 for more charts, tables, and analysis covering the threat landscape.