The R&D lab at Quick Heal receives 3 million malware samples every month witnessing a rise in the number of Ransomware & Adware across Android and Windows platforms
April 21, 2015: Quick Heal Technologies Limited has, in its Threat Reports for the first quarter of the year 2015, forecasted that the threat of pre-installed software on machines would be a common source of spreading Adware in the next quarter and even the newly purchased machines would carry the risk of malware.
The reports further talks about how IT security is a constantly evolving domain and backs it up with the growing numbers of malware samples detected. It lists out the top malware threats, samples and upcoming trends of both Windows and Android platforms. Even trusted sources of programs and applications can open doors for malware into systems.
Mr. Sanjay Katkar, CTO, Quick Heal Technologies, said, “We have, over the years, witnessed an increasing number of Ransomware and Adware cases across both Android and Windows platforms. In recent times, Ransomware has evolved some more with the help of different file formats and social engineering tricks that are being used to increase its reach and impact.” Mr. Katkar said.
The Key findings of the Quick Heal Threat Report Q1 – 2015 – Android
- Android Adware continued to be the dominant force of samples with a 59% share in the detected sample variants
- 17 new variants of Android Adware detected. This highlights that Android users need to be wary of unwanted ads on their devices
- The most prominent Android sample from Q1 was Android.Airpush.G, which is a form of Android Adware
- Quick Heal Threat Research Labs received 4,30,000 Android samples each month in the first quarter of 2015 which is a 185% increase from the same time last year
- The samples included 158 new families of Android malware and 212 new variants of existing Android malware families
- Android ransomware will continue to plague devices – 4 new variants of popular ransomware Android.Simplocker were detected. If plagued with ransomware, users should never actually pay the ransom
- Social engineering attacks on popular social networking and chatting applications such as WhatsApp will see a rise in the coming months. Users should be careful about forwarded messages and invitations
- Banking credentials and mobile banking apps will come under the radar of attackers in the coming months
The Key findings of the Quick Heal Threat Report Q1 – 2015 – Windows
- The most common malware sample detected was W32.Autorun.Gen, which is a Worm that spreads via USB devices. We recommend, USB devices should always be scanned when connected to computers
- Windows Adware that enters the system via bundled software and then proceeds to change the browser and search engine settings was also detected in many cases. Users should carefully check for bundled software while installing programs
- Ransomware also continued to propagate further in this quarter. The most prevalent ransomware sample detected was Cryptowall 3.0
- On the Windows platform, Quick Heal Threat Research Labs detected 2.3 million malware samples per month in the first quarter of 2015
- The ‘Superfish’ vulnerability was discovered in Lenovo laptops shipped between September 2014 and February 2015. This vulnerability has since been resolved by Lenovo.
For full report write to us or visit: http://www.quickheal.co.in/resources/threat-reports
About Quick Heal Technologies
Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd., founded in 1993, is a leading IT security solutions provider and an ISO 9001 certified company. Over a span of 21 years the company’s R&D has focused on endpoint and network security solutions. Quick Heal has partnered with Microsoft and Intel. The products are internationally certified by ICSA Labs, AV-Test and more. The company has global offices in UAE, US, Japan and Kenya. It has a well-connected network of 15000 plus channel partners in more than 100 countries worldwide. Quick Heal Technologies employs more than 1200 people across 33 branches in the country.