New figures released by Microsoft indicate that global ransomware attacks fell by 60% between March and December of last year, while malware attacks declined in general. Instead, threat actors are launching campaigns that rely on more covert attack techniques such as phishing and social engineering in general.
Cyber criminals also took to cryptojacking last year. Cryptojacking is the illegitimate use of a system’s resourcing powers for mining cryptocurrency. Microsoft detected far more cryptojacking attacks than ransomware campaigns in 2018, with the average monthly detection rate for cryptojacking reaching 0.12%, more than twice the rate for ransomware (0.05%).
Read more: Ransomware and malware attacks decline, attackers adopting covert tactics
