In an Evil Internet Minute, £656,393 is Lost to Cybercrime, Reveals RiskIQ
July 2017 by RiskIQ
With cybercriminals costing the global economy £345
billion last year alone [1], RiskIQ has examined the
growing volume of malicious activity on the Internet to reveal the inaugural ‘Evil
Internet Minute’. In a single evil internet minute, close to £656,393 is lost to
cybercrime and 1,080 people fall victim. Despite businesses’ best efforts to guard
against external cyber threats, spending up to £109,942 [2] in 60 seconds, bad
actors continue to proliferate online.
Colin Verrall, VP EMEA, RiskIQ comments, “As the Internet and its community
continues to grow at pace, some people have been trying to make the vast numbers associated with it more accessible by framing them in the context of an ‘Internet
Minute’. As the same growth applies to cybercrime, similarly, we have framed
malicious Internet activity, leveraging the latest research as well as our own
intelligence to define the darker happenings across the web in 60 seconds.”
The threats are complex with tactics ranging from malware to phishing, and
intentions including monetary gain, inflicting large scale reputational damage or
perhaps even to entertain. Cyber criminals continue to find success deploying
tactics from 818 pieces of unique malware, 1214 ransomware attacks and over 100,000 phishing emails in just one evil internet minute.
RiskIQ’s research has also uncovered additional malicious activity, ranging from
blacklisted mobile apps to malvertising:
– New blacklisted mobile apps: 0.3 per minute
– New phishing pages: 100 per minute
– Malvertising: 14.5 incidents per minute
– Pirate content: 4,300 people globally exposed to malware from content
theft sites per minute
Colin Verrall, VP EMEA, RiskIQ comments, “Sophisticated cyber criminals continue
to expand their digital armoury, lurking behind more online activity than we might
expect. Websites, emails, mobile apps, online videos or even digital advertisements;
all have become regular methods of entry for malicious online activity. The digital
footprint of a business is always larger than perceived and with such happenings,
control is often relinquished. It is crucial then for organisations to be aware of
their entire digital footprint and make it a priority to close any critical security
gaps. It is only way to adequately secure a business, its employees and
customers.”
[1] Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2017