And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the trends that defined the cyberthreat landscape in the final four months of 2022.
Data from the latest ESET Threat Report, which provides an in-depth look at the threat landscape from September to December 2022, confirmed several previously observed trends. The key of them was a continuous decline in all but one monitored malware category.
Curiously enough, however, the overall drop in numbers in T2 and T3 2022 did not correspond to the year-over-year figures, which exhibited growth in several areas, including downloaders and email threats.
The only category that saw growing numbers throughout the year was Android threats. In T3 2022, Android malware activity shifted to a higher gear, increasing by 57%. We also observed several interesting Android spyware variants wielded by criminals and APTs alike.
In contrast, ransomware detections in ESET telemetry remained steady in the last four months but demonstrated a worrying tendency toward the ever more destructive. This was true mostly because Russia-aligned APT groups unleashed data-destroying ransomware variants on Ukraine and its allies. However, there was also a case where Russian organizations and their data were hit.
If you want to dig deeper into these topics but just don’t feel like reading the whole 49 pages of the ESET Threat Report T3 2022, listen to this episode of the ESET Research Podcast hosted by ESET Distinguished Researcher Aryeh Goretsky and his guest, ESET Security Awareness Specialist and one of the report’s authors, Ondrej Kubovic.
For the full experience though, head over here:
ESET Threat Report T3 2022
ESET APT Activity Report T3 2022