The Biggest Malware Threats to Businesses in Upcoming 2019

Malware Is Threatening Businesses

Now threats from malware to businesses are on the increase. As more and more life and commerce turn to electronic media, bad actors distinctly get more gain online.

Besides, the digital domain itself provides a series of services for potential infiltrators. From scripting as a service to malware testing environments, it applies common security methods to new code to check its efficiency. As a result, there are higher risks that expose your daily business operations.

According to a recent report by MalwareBytes, you can know the biggest threats to enterprises in the next twelve months. So what are the top malware threats 2019? See the security trends in 2019 in the following part.

Related article: Ransomware Prevention Policy, Protect Yourself Now!

Top 5 Malware Threats to Businesses

1. Fileless Attacks

One of the most alarming trends to appear from hackers is fileless attacks that are quite popular. These attacks always come from common applications including a web browser, Office application, a browser extension, or media player. And they are fixed in the memory of a computer instead of displaying as discrete files.

Fileless attacks can be as simple as visiting an infected website. And the site’s code can place a payload into the computer via a security vulnerability of an unlatched or older browser, a flaky plug-in such as an old Java extension or Adobe Flash.

From there, the malware moves to PC’s memory to exfiltrate data, download further code, or shut down the antimalware program on individual devices.

2. Unprotected Endpoints

Fileless and other attacks target device users who come to work in companies and organizations. For devices at risk, not only desktop or laptop machines but also mobile devices that are brought to work are also the targets.

Hackers and malware attackers are targeting individual users in the organization. Security teams still pay attention to network-centric but watch infected devices to walk into the workspace.

Of course, intrusion detection systems and stateful firewalls are still valuable. But this type of protection like signature-based malware recognition algorithms may be accused.

For cybersecurity protection, it is necessary to examine the individual app’s behavior, analyze internal traffic and East-West traffic in the server room or data center, which can offer awry clues.

3. Emotet＆Trickbot

These are prime examples of next-generation malware and are distributed mainly by email and carried by office documents. And these two attacks are launched via Windows Powershell to download and start malware. Since downloaded files may mutate at their source, the presentation is not common and it is difficult to detect them.

Emotet often appears in the US, but there is an increase in activity in the UK, Germany, and Canada. And it always brings about Trickbot infections that are a result of after-the-fact scanning. Due to the dynamic feature of Emotet, you may see more variations and infections in 2019.

4. SamSam

This kind of malware can be activated and configured remotely after an infection. This means the activities can vary greatly, from ransomware to it, allowing controlling a compromised system at a third-party complete administration-level.

Hackers always use SamSam to disable antimalware software on each infected device and install a catalog of malware although you have a complex antimalware program.

Up to now in 2018, 67 different targets have been hit by SamSam. Just like Emotet, it may breed variations and copycat attacks in 2019.

5. Unknown PowerShell Abuses

PowerShell is a scripting tool in common use at root level in Windows Installations and it is commonly used alongside compromised Office documents.

After the initial infection, it can be used to download and install additional malware. But it is difficult to detect fileless malware ensconced in memory by some security systems. The malware can sit and wait to deploy, traverse the network or download and install additional threats if you don’t check process memory.

Protect Your Business from Malware Attacks

After learning so many malware threats to businesses, you know it is important to take action to protect against malware. In the future, in order to fight cybercrime, businesses should pay much attention to threat detection because of malware behavior instead of threat recognition.

They should use the same skills as white hat cybersecurity professionals, and the methods deployed are often like PowerShell which are used to protect systems by system administrators and programmers.

Besides, it is necessary to have amelioration and recovery systems and processes in place, and practiced, at all times.

Additionally, business should use a piece of professional Windows backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker, to back up important data on a regular basis. This can protect from data loss.