ESET recently released its T2 2022 Threat Report, summarising key statistics from ESET detection systems, and highlighting notable examples of ESET’s cybersecurity research.

The latest issue of the ESET Threat Report (covering May to August 2022) sheds light on the changes in ideologically motivated ransomware; Emotet activity; the most-used phishing lures; how the plummeting cryptocurrency exchange rates affected online threats; and the continuation of the 89% decline of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) since the T1 Threat Report.

ESET analysts think these attacks continued to lose their steam due to the Russia-Ukraine war, along with the post-Covid return to offices and overall improved security of corporate environments.

Even with declining numbers, Russian IP addresses continued to be responsible for the largest portion of RDP attacks. “In T1 2022, Russia was also the country that was most targeted by ransomware, with some of the attacks being politically or ideologically motivated by the war. However, ESET Threat Report T2 2022 shows that this hacktivism wave has declined in T2, and ransomware operators turned their attention towards the US, China and Israel,” explains Steve Flynn, sales and marketing director at ESET Southern Africa.

According to ESET telemetry, August was a vacation month for the operators of Emotet, the most influential downloader strain. The gang behind it also adapted to Microsoft’s decision to disable VBA macros in documents originating from the Internet and focused on campaigns based on weaponised Microsoft Office files and LNK files.

The report also examines threats mostly impacting home users. ESET phishing feeds showed a sixfold increase in shipping-themed phishing lures, most of the time presenting the victims with fake DHL and USPS requests to verify shipping addresses. “In terms of threats directly affecting virtual and physical currencies, a Web skimmer known as Magecart remains the leading threat going after online shoppers’ credit card details. We also saw a twofold increase in cryptocurrency-themed phishing lures and a rising number of crypto-stealers,” says Flynn.

Important findings

The ESET T2 2022 Threat Report also reviews the most important findings and achievements by ESET researchers. They uncovered a previously unknown macOS backdoor, and later attributed it to ScarCruft, discovered an updated version of the Sandworm APT group’s ArguePatch malware loader, uncovered Lazarus payloads in trojanised apps, and analysed an instance of the Lazarus Operation In(ter)ception campaign targeting macOS devices while spear phishing in crypto waters. ESET researchers also discovered buffer overflow vulnerabilities in Lenovo UEFI firmware and a new campaign using a fake Salesforce update as a lure.

Besides these findings, the report also summarises the many presentations given by ESET researchers in recent months, and shares planned presentations for AVAR, Ekoparty and many other conferences.

For more information on the ESET Threat Report, please refer to the ESET Threat Report T2 2022 on WeLiveSecurity. Make sure to follow ESET Research on Twitter for the latest news from ESET Research.

Threat report summarised

Politically motivated ransomware declined; operators turned their attention from Russia back to their usual targets such as the US, China, and Israel.
Emotet continued to be active, with detections seen mainly in Japan and Italy; according to ESET telemetry, its operators took time off in August.
ESET phishing feeds showed a sixfold increase in shipping-themed phishing URLs, with the most commonly impersonated brands being USPS and DHL.
Web skimmer known as Magecart constituted three-quarters of all banking malware detections, leaving far behind the rest of the malware strains in the category.
Cryptocurrency threats went down along with the price of bitcoin; however, the previously declining category of crypto-stealers grew by almost 50%.

About ESET
For more than 30 years, ESET has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure and consumers worldwide from increasingly sophisticated digital threats.

From endpoint and mobile security to endpoint detection and response, encryption and multifactor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use solutions unobtrusively protect and monitor 24/7, updating defences in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company that enables the safe use of technology. This is backed by ESET’s R&D centres worldwide, working in support of our shared future. For more information, visit www.eset.com/za or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.