The Latest Intelligence page has been refreshed through July 2016, providing the most up-to-date analysis of cybersecurity threats, trends, and insights concerning malware, spam, and other potentially harmful business risks. Here are some key takeaways from this latest batch of intelligence.
The Neutrino toolkit topped the list of Web Attacks by Toolkit, increasing more than 10 percentage points in July to 21.5 percent of all activity. The Angler toolkit declined another 15.7 percentage points in July, dropping to second place. This toolkit's activity began to fall in June, where it dropped 30 percentage points, and follows the disappearance of the Nuclear and Spartan toolkits in previous months.
Figure 1. Neutrino exploit kit was responsible for the most web attacks in July
The phishing rate increased in July, up to one in 1,886 emails. The Manufacturing sector saw the highest phishing rates in July at one in 758 emails. This is a significant jump from June, where one in 3,941 emails was a phishing attempt. At one in 1,242 emails, the Agriculture, Forestry, & Fishing sector came in second this month. With one in 1,171 emails, organizations with 2,501+ employees again had the highest phishing rate.
Figure 2. Manufacturing was the industry targeted most often in email phishing attacks
The email malware rate increased to one in 194 emails in July, also rising across most industries, with the exception of the Public Administration sector. Email malware rates also increased across organizations sizes in July. The largest increase was seen in businesses with 1,501-2,500 employees.
The global spam rate increased in July, from 52.7 percent in June to 53.2 percent. The Construction sector had the highest spam rate for the fourth month in a row, up 1.4 percentage points to 59.9 percent. At 56 percent, the Mining sector came in second place, up 0.4 percentage points from June, followed by Retail Trade at 55.3 percent. Organizations with 1-250 employees had the highest spam rate in July.
These are just a few items that stood out during the month. Be sure to check out the Latest Intelligence for July 2016 for more charts, tables, and analysis covering the threat landscape.