The Latest Intelligence page has been refreshed through May 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 Angler toolkit, which had consistently ranked second in our list of web attacks by toolkit, came out on top in May, comprising 51.2 percent of all toolkit activity. The Nuclear exploit kit, which topped April’s list, has dropped out of the top five this month, likely due to research that was published in late April, shedding light on the toolkit’s infrastructure and likely leading to disruptions. This follows the disappearance of the Spartan toolkit from our top five list in April. The Spartan toolkit had also previously topped the list of web attacks by toolkit.
Figure 1. Angler tops the list of exploit kits responsible for web attacks in May
Manual sharing continues to dominate social media scams, though it declined another 7.91 percentage points since April. Fake Offers increased for the second month in a row, up from 20.7 percent in April to 25.68 percent for the month of May.
The global spam rate increased slightly in May, from 52.7 percent in April to 53 percent, and the Construction sector had the highest spam rate for the second month in a row, increasing 0.6 percentage points. At 55.8 percent, the Mining sector remained in second place for May, up 0.3 percentage points from April. Organizations with 1-250 employees had the highest spam rate.
The email malware rate increased to one in 134 emails in May. While higher than April, the rate is still below the email malware levels we saw between November 2015 and March of this year. Email malware rates also increased across industries, as well as organizations sizes, during the month of May.
Figure 2. The email malware rate increased to one in 134 emails in May
The phishing rate increased in May, rising to one in 2,284 emails. The Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate sector saw the highest rates at one in 1,520 emails and the Agriculture, Forestry, & Fishing sector had the second-highest phishing rate at one in 1,601 emails. With one in 1,638 emails, organizations with 1501-2500 employees again had the highest phishing rate.
These are just a few items that stood out during the month. Be sure to check out the Latest Intelligence for May 2016 for more charts, tables, and analysis covering the threat landscape.