Fileless malware attacks increased 265 percent in the past six months

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Fileless malware infections rose 265 percent in the first half year-over-year. This method is increasingly being used to hide malware from virus scanners and security software.

Fileless malware has been on the rise since the first half of 2018, according to Trend Micro’s semi-annual report. The security company detected 710,733 malware infections that were “fileless” in the first half of 2019. That is a significant increase compared to the previous year. In the first half of last year, the company found 194,840 fileless infections.

With fileless malware, the necessary files are not installed on the system. Instead, the malware is executed through the working memory, for example by using programs like PowerShell. It is often difficult for virus scanners and other security software to detect such malware. Since the fileless malware resides only in the working memory, it often disappears after the computer is restarted.

In addition to the rise of fileless malware, Trend Micro also sees a comeback from ransomware. The company detected more than 46 million ransomware attacks in the first half of the year. In the second half of 2018, there were only 26 million. According to the company, this mainly concerns systems of companies that are infected by infected e-mails with ransomware.

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