A new cybersecurity analysis indicates that the number of malware infections has increased significantly for the last month.
According to data compiled by researchers at AtlasVPN and Kaspersky’s real-time cyberthreat map, there have been more than 10 million malware infections per day in April 2020 alone. More than 64% of the investigated malicious attacks were against educational institutions.
To be more precise, the number of malware infections was in truth rising and falling, with from 10 million to 16 million cases per day.
From April 5 onwards, the number of local malware infections started going up, raching over 13.5 million of registered cases on April 7, the researchers said. Then, the number slightly decreased the next day but went up to 14 million on April 9. From this day, the infections decreased steadily, but jumped to around 15 million during the next few days.
The peak of the infections was registered on April 16, when 16 million cases were detected worldwide.
April 2020 Malware Infections: Most Targeted Regions
Kaspersky numbers show that the most attacked region in April was the Central Asia region where most local attacks were registered. However, it should be noted that the actual numbers of all attacks could be much bigger as these statistics are related to machines running Kaspersky antivirus software.
Last month, approximately 30% of devices in Tajikistan were exposed to malware, followed by Uzbekistan. In China, Kaspersky detected malware in 26.93% of systems. In both Venezuela and Brazil, about 12% of devices experienced malware infections, followed by an average of 11% of infections in Mexico.
What about Europe? Apparently, Belarus and Russia suffered the highest number of infections, with 22.07% of devices in Belarus exposed to malware, and 21.82% in Russia.
In February 2020, Webroot researchers went through some “massive amounts of data” for their detailed threat report. The researchers analyzed samples from more than 37 billion URLs, 842 million domains, 4 billion IP addresses, 31 million active mobile apps, and 36 billion file behavior records. This data is gathered from millions of real-world endpoints and sensors, third-party databases, and end users protected by WebRoot’s technology partners.
One of the most important discoveries in this threat report was related to phishing and malware attacks against Windows 7 machines. The researchers registered a 640% growth in phishing attempts, followed by a 125% increase in malware specifically targeting Windows 7.
Milena Dimitrova
An inspired writer and content manager who has been with SensorsTechForum since the project started. A professional with 10+ years of experience in creating engaging content. Focused on user privacy and malware development, she strongly believes in a world where cybersecurity plays a central role. If common sense makes no sense, she will be there to take notes. Those notes may later turn into articles! Follow Milena @Milenyim
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