The shifting framework of modern malware

Research reveals how evolving threats can readily bypass legacy antivirus solutions.

5 years ago Posted in

eSentire and Carbon Black have released a new Threat Intelligence Spotlight that highlights the increasing sophistication of modern malware. The new report coincides with the start of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the United States and Canada.

With modern malware becoming increasingly sophisticated, eSentire and Carbon Black conducted the Threat Intelligence Spotlight to provide a resource that can be used by anyone, regardless of their technical knowledge, to understand how malware works, and more importantly how to protect against its impact.

eSentire's Threat Intelligence Spotlight: The Shifting Framework of Modern Malware draws on data gathered from both Carbon Black's extensive endpoint protection install base and the more than 650 mid-sized organizations that eSentire protects. Analysis of this data by security analysts at both companies reveals interesting findings, which include:

The median number of variants within a malware family is around 10, which begins to highlight the challenges faced by traditional endpoint solutions—and the largest number of variants within a family is more than 200
It takes nearly 40 hours for the majority of legacy antivirus engines to detect some new forms of malware
New variants of Emotet, a major malware family that recently returned after a four month hiatus, can spread to unprotected hosts on the same network in under 12 seconds
Over two-thirds (67%) of all malware enters an organization via email

Sean Blenkhorn, Chief Product Officer, eSentire said: "The global malware ecosystem has matured beyond nuisance-causing and attention-grabbing activities into a massive business, complete with markets, vendors and outsourcing. Education is the first step in being able to protect against malware, and our new Threat Intelligence Spotlight provides the perfect foundation for anyone who wants to understand this issue in more detail."

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