Kaspersky Finds 125 Million Malicious Files During 2023

Kaspersky detects 411 thousand malicious files every day (photo: Kaspersky)

JAKARTA - In 2023, the Kaspersky system detected a total of almost 125 million malicious files. Windows continues to be a major target for cyberattacks, accounting for 88 percent of all malware-laden data detected every day.

“The cyber threat landscape continues to evolve and become more dangerous every year. "Adversaries continue to develop new malware, techniques and methods to attack organizations and individuals," said Vladimir Kuskov, Head of Anti-Malware Research at Kaspersky in a statement on Monday, December 11.

A family of dangerous malware spread through different scripts and document formats ranks among the top three threats, accounting for 10 percent of all malicious files detected each day.

In addition, Kaspersky's detection system also found a significant daily increase in malicious files in various document formats. For example, Microsoft Office, PDF, etc. increased by 53 percent to about 24,000 files.

This growth may be related to an increase in attacks utilizing phishing PDF files, designed to steal data from potential victims.

The global security company also said that the most widespread malware is trojans. This year, there was a significant increase in backdoor usage, recording growth from 15,000 files detected per day in 2022 to 40,000 in 2023.

“The number of reported vulnerabilities is also increasing every year, and threat actors including ransomware groups will take advantage of the opportunity without hesitation,” he added.

Backdoors stand out as one of the most dangerous types of trojans, giving attackers remote control over a victim's system to carry out tasks such as sending, receiving, executing, and deleting files, as well as collecting confidential data to log computer activity.

Overall, Kaspersky detection systems found an average of 411,000 malicious files every day, an increase of almost 3 percent in 2023, compared to the previous year.