Bitdefender: Ransomware attacks soar in 2020

A “2020 Consumer Threat Landscape Report” released by Bitdefender shows that compared with 2019, the number of ransomware attacks in 2020 has increased by 485%. Attacks in the first and second quarters accounted for 64% of all attacks, 19% higher than the first two quarters of 2019.

The report pointed out that although the Internet of Things devices with proprietary operating systems accounted for only 34% of consumer devices, their vulnerabilities accounted for 96%. In addition, compared with 2019, smart TV vulnerabilities have increased by 335%, while the number of vulnerabilities found in NAS devices has increased by 189%.

Bogdan Botezatu, Head of Threat Research and Reporting at Bitdefender, said that its 2020 survey results show that consumers are constantly being attacked by cybercriminals who want to capitalize on the fear and social uncertainty brought about by the global pandemic. Cybercriminals will spare no effort to use anomalous events and human compassion to fill their pockets. At the same time, some forms of attacks are constantly progressing and developing.

Compared with the second half of 2019, Android threats reported in the second half of 2020 have increased by 32%. Of all Android malware detected, 35% came from Android.Trojan.Agent series, followed by Android.Trojan.Downloader (10%) and Android.Trojan.Banker (7%).

The number of potentially harmful applications (Potentially unwanted applications) worldwide has also increased, with a year-on-year increase of 320% in 2020 compared with 2019. According to the report, although PUAs are not necessarily malicious, they can also affect the user experience by slowing down the system, displaying unexpected advertisements, or installing additional software. In addition, in the second half of 2020, Emotet attacks also increased by 449%; TrickBot attacks decreased by 53%.