KUALA LUMPUR (March 8): Ransomware attacks in Malaysia rose 16% year-on-year in 2022, with a total of 555 million attacks blocked, according to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro Inc.

In a statement on Wednesday (March 8), Trend Micro said global cyber threat detections hit a record-breaking 146 billion in 2022.

The firm said in Malaysia, the number of detected malware surged by 71% in 2022 to over 50 million, likely due to threat actors taking advantage of unpatched virtual private networks (VPN), connected mobile devices, and back-end cloud infrastructure brought on by the new hybrid working model.

Trend Micro Malaysia and Nascent Countries managing director Goh Chee Hoh said the breadth of Trend Micro threat intelligence revealed 2022 as a year when threat actors went 'all-in' to boost profits.

“A surge in backdoor detections is particularly concerning in showing us their success in making landfall inside networks.

“To manage risk effectively across a rapidly expanding attack surface, stretched security teams need a more streamlined, platform-based approach,” he said.

Goh said ransomware groups rebranded and diversified in a bid to address declining profits.

“In the future, we expect these groups to move into adjacent areas that monetize initial access, such as stock fraud, business email compromise (BEC), money laundering, and cryptocurrency theft.

“An 86% increase in backdoor malware detections reveals threat actors trying to maintain their presence inside networks for a future attack. These backdoors primarily targeted web server platform vulnerabilities,” he said.