Nuspire Q4 2022 and Year in Review Threat Report: Cyber Threat Numbers Make History

Nuspire’s latest threat report, which provides an analysis on the cyberthreat landscape for both Q4 and FY 2022, revealed what many have come to believe: 2022 was the most active year in history for cyber threats. Nuspire’s threat intelligence pros, Josh Smith and Justin Heard, recently presented on their findings, offering their thoughts on why we’re continuing to see an upward trajectory of attacks as well as actionable recommendations on how organizations can protect themselves. Read on to get the highlights.

Malware: Year-over-year activity grew despite decrease in Q4

Q4 By the Numbers
2,415,119 total
590 unique variants detected
201,259 detections per week
28,751 detections per day
-34.56% decrease in total activity from Q3

Malware saw a decline in Q4 2022 activity, with CoinMiner being supplanted by Malicious Excel payloads. According to Josh, this increase appears connected to Microsoft’s blocking of VBA macros by default, which has forced threat actors to leverage different methods to spread their malware.

“When Microsoft blocked VBA macros, it made it much harder for threat actors to enable them for their phishing campaigns, and we saw adversaries experimenting with new ways to manipulate Excel files,” Josh said.

Nuspire also identified an increase in the use of JavaScript to drive phishing campaigns. In this case, JavaScript is used to redirect victims to phishing forms or malicious sites.

2022 Year in Review
Despite the significant dip in malware activity in Q4, Nuspire still saw a 6.85% increase in activity over 2021.

“Organizations should expect attackers to continue launching phishing campaigns in 2023, as it is one of the most effective methods they have to gain initial access,” said Josh. “It’s a relatively easy method – threat actors can broadly send a phishing campaign and only need one user to bite in order to gain the access they’re looking for.”

Botnets: Activity jumped over 30% in 2022

Q4 By the Numbers
741,166 total
30 unique botnets detected
61,763 detections per week
8,823 detections per day
-66.35% decrease in total activity from Q3

Botnets took a plunge in Q4, with activity reducing by more than 66%. Much of this decline was fueled by a…