Non-malware attacks are on the rise

Security pros need to pay attention to malicious activities that don’t rely on actual malware to succeed, according to a study by Carbon Black.

Attacks that exploited applications and processes legitimately running on systems – non-malware incidents – have risen from representing about 3% of all attacks in January to about 13% in November, the company’s “Non-malware attacks and ransomware take center stage in 2016” report says.

“Non-malware attacks are at the highest levels we have seen and should be a major focus for security defenders during the coming year,” it says.

The research included data from more than 1,000 Carbon Black customers that represent 2.5 million-plus endpoints. For measuring the non-malware attacks, the authors considered the malicious use of PowerShell and Windows Management Instrumentation were considered.

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Network World Security