26. July 2021

This article has been indexed from E Hacking News – Latest Hacker News and IT Security News

Cybersecurity firm Netskope published the fifth edition of its Cloud and Threat Report that covers the cloud data risks, menaces, and trends they see throughout the quarter. According to the security firm report, malware delivered over the cloud increased 68% in the second quarter.

“In Q2 2021, 43% of all malware downloads were malicious Office docs, compared to just 20% at the beginning of 2020. This increase comes even after the Emotet takedown, indicating that other groups observed the success of the Emotet crew and have adopted similar techniques,” the report said.

“Collaboration apps and development tools account for the next largest percentage, as attackers abuse popular chat apps and code repositories to deliver malware. In total, Netskope detected and blocked malware downloads originating from 290 distinct cloud apps in the first half of 2021.” 

Cybersecurity researchers explained that threat actors deliver malware via cloud applications “to bypass blocklists and take advantage of any app-specific allow lists.” Cloud service providers usually eliminate most malware instantly, but some attackers have discovered methods to do significant damage in the short time they spend in a system without being noticed.