AV-Test.org - Facts & Analyses on the Threat Scenario: The AV-TEST Security Report

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The new trend in the malware industry observed in 2019 clearly continued in 2020. The development of malware programs is divided up into two areas: While on the one hand the automated production of mass malware for broadly-based online attacks continues to grow sharply, on the other hand cybercriminals are increasingly developing sophisticated malware for specialized attacks on companies and critical infrastructure. The answers to all questions on current developments in the threat scenario can be found in the AV-TEST Security Report 2019/2020.

Massive attacks on Windows with mass malwareIn 2019, the use of mass malware, i.e. malware programs created automatically, reaped considerable profits for cybercriminals. Accordingly, the rate of this malware, distributed mainly per e-mail and over the Internet, grew sharply. With more than 114 million (114,312,703) newly-developed malware applications, the malware industry broke the sound barrier in 2019 and was more active than ever before. The analysis of the latest detection statistics for the first quarter of 2020 indicates that this year will also see significant growth rates: Already in the first quarter of the current year, the AV-TEST systems have registered over 43 million newly-programmed samples. Accordingly, by the end of 2020, there will be an anticipated explosion of newly-developed malware applications, which could level off for the entire year at more than 160 million samples. As a result, the threat scenario posed by mass malware could reach a new dangerous peak in 2020. Currently, the development rate of new malware is at 4.3 samples per second!

A precipitating factor for this dramatic development can be viewed as a positive, because among other reasons, the mass development of new malware samples can be explained by the high level of protection currently provided by security products. This is true especially for protection solutions for Windows systems. Because the majority of all malware still targets the operating system most widely used by far around the world. In 2019, over 78 percent of malware codes newly-developed by cybercriminals targeted Windows systems. In the first quarter of 2020, this value continued to increase to over 83 percent
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